An Untold Romance, the Story of Zutara
by crazejen
Summary: Zuko has long been running from his feelings, and now it's time for him to turn around and face them. He heads off to join the Gaang and his feelings for Katara awaken, blossoming a love that no one else can possibly understand. Not sure why it's rated T. May never be completed.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** Greetings Earthlings! No, seriously, I am going to explain a bit about this story. It was written back in November for the NanoWrimo 50,000 words story, well I completed the 50,000 words, only problem...I didn't finish the story .;; So, I decided to post the first couple of chapters up here on and see if I got any good views. And FYI for some readers, this story is VERY lengthy, and will probably take a good half-hour to read. So feel free to print it out if you want and read it on the way to school etc. If you claim it's yours when you do that I will not be very happy. I work REALLY hard on this story I went for several days without sleep to complete it. And I really like it most of all, so please read and enjoy! And if you aren't a Zutara fan...if you are a Kataanger who just wants to bash of a Maiko fan, please...don't. It takes more time to type a rude comment than it does to hit the back button. Also another tidbit, the beginning was put in after I finished the 50,000 words, why? Because I didn't want to cheat, I had already written a small story on Zutara ((the beginning)) and someone requested I start the story out with that, so I did. And it works rather nicely. So please enjoy! And Thank you for reading!

oOoOoOoOoOo

"**It comes hard to explain about the romance between two people who were on an extreme level very different, and yet the same in so many ways."—Jenny **

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_She thought she may never forgive him. She thought for sure there was no way on earth to forgive someone like him, a person who had chased them around so much, and had tried to kill them on numerous occasions. Her hate for him had built up over the months, and finally... she had taken it out on him. She had blamed him for something she knew wasn't his fault, but she couldn't help it. She felt like everything bad that had happened to them was his fault. She knew better... and on the trip they had taken... and at the beginning of that mess... she had felt an inner twist of emotions. Such as when he saved her from being crushed, he was of course on top of her, and she had lashed out at him for saving her. But truthfully, inside she had felt a small twist in her gut; she wasn't sure what it was. Some people called it butterflies, she called it confusion. _

_Then they had gone on their mission, he had stood up for her... threatened the men, gotten mad for her. And he didn't try to stop her from taking out her rage, perhaps it was wrong of her, but she was grateful that unlike Aang, he didn't try to stop her. He supported her and even when he knew what Aang had said was right, he supported her at the end of it. While she had been blood bending, he had just looked shocked, but hadn't asked wildly; "Stop! What are you doing to that man!!" he had just let her do it. Also when they had finally found the real man who had murdered her mother... he hadn't tried to stop her from killing him. Which she hadn't, but she was sure it was because he knew she had to make her own choices. He didn't treat her like she couldn't think for herself, not that anyone else did, but sometimes she felt like they were restraining her._

_She was feeling conflicted, she knew how Aang felt for her, but…She was feeling something else now. And she was afraid yet happy about it at the same time. She had never felt like this before... not even when she had been around Jet. Something new, inexperienced, she was looking forward and at the same time a little scared to know of where it would take her. Of course, she had never been one to back down from a challenge. And this feeling was certainly a challenge; she would follow the path, and see where it would lead. Be it to heartbreak or to a dead-end, she didn't know, and at the moment... she wasn't sure if she cared._

_She was of course still upset over her mother having been murdered, and the fact that she hadn't been able to kill the man. Even though she knew what she had done was right... she felt it all tugging at her insides..._

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"**Dreams they come and go, but thoughts like love will always grow." –Special Girl, Chicago**

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The sound of padding feet and flames licking the walls alerted the prince of fire that someone was lighting the lamps in the hall for the night, he glanced down the hall as he stood outside his bedroom door, he had been debating something with himself and now he couldn't seem to find an answer to his questions. The Prince jumped when the servant came around the corner, "Ah, Good Evening Prince Zuko." The servant said bowing, his expression unchanging. Zuko nodded with a twitch before opening his door and stepping into the room, he breathed a sigh of relief, for what reason he wasn't sure, but he just knew he needed it.

Turning to look at his room Zuko loosened his shirt, making it more comfortable, his golden eyes scanned the red room and his mouth went into an uninvited frown. He carefully pulled the stick that was poked in a hole in his golden flame shaped crown and pulled the hair dress off and let his hair fall. Zuko closed his eyes and took a deep breath, and opened his eyes. His room was huge, definitely a lot bigger than the captain's cabin he had back on his tiny ship. The room was covered in red things, including the walls, brilliant bright reds, dark reds and even some golden red, silky curtains waved down from the top of the window and swayed around the bottom of the doors that opened to the balcony like a cloak hiding a precious secret. Zuko sighed and threw his outer coat onto the bed; he strolled over his bed and flopped onto the squishy comfort of the princely bed, covered in red silky sheets and blanket, with a red canopy. He glanced around the room, all this glory, all these colors… this was nothing. He had been living away from these things for so long that he really didn't enjoy seeing the plastered colors.

Zuko glanced around the room in a slight disgust, all of this was wrong, very wrong, they had all the pleasures in the world, but those poor people who lived out on the street who were tortured by the insignia of the fire nation, and ran away in fear of his people. A stinging pain jolted through his head, and Zuko bent his head into his hand and winced, he was gaining a headache from all the things that had happened and that would happen. A flash of blue made him look up; sitting on his dresser, his eyebrows narrowed as he stood up and walked over to it. Sitting as if it had appeared by magic was a necklace; he recognized it as the water tribe peasant's necklace, what was her name again? Zuko shrugged it off and reached out to pick up the necklace, but it faded before his eyes. _'What the…'_

Taken-aback by the image that had just disappeared as suddenly as it had come made Zuko back away slowly from his dresser and decide it might be best to get some rest, Zuko silently pleaded with whatever power there might be that he wasn't losing his mind. So with an unsteady heart he lifted the blanket and sheet, and slid under them slipping into the warm comfort of home, hoping to have a goodnights rest.

As dreams almost always are, you cannot control them, they move and flow without your permission, and you must follow the tide, such is what happened to Zuko as he slept.

_The sound of the sea crashing against the icebergs filled his senses as he followed the path the avatar had left to the little village, he was already in his armor when they landed on the ice, he walked down the plank, kicking a peasant along the way and stopped in front of the group of villagers. His golden eyes that flickered like fire, scanning them, his line of vision paused on a village girl who stood next to an older woman, she seemed to be afraid, her eyes shivered with fear and her face showed small signs of wanting to run. Her beautiful blue eyes shimmered and her thick hair twisted into two loops and went back into a braid. He had to admire for a moment that someone this pretty was actually in an ice-hole like this, he reached out toward her and touched her hair, running his gloved finger down her face and stopped at her chin. _

Jolting up Zuko's breath came out hard, as sweat poured down his face. In comparison to some of his scary dreams he would rather have those nightmares a hundred times instead of having a strange dream like that. Zuko rubbed his face and ran a hand through his hair, then with a shiver he lay his head back down on the pillow case and closed his eyes to sleep.

When Zuko arose the next morning, he felt well rested; he hadn't had another dream like the previous one. But having that dream made him think of something he hadn't thought about since it had happened… the day he was captured and thrown into the prison with the water tribe girl; Katara. He clothed himself, because it was to early for the servants to be there, and then walked over to the mirror, he looked at his reflection and stared at the scar he found so hideous, and remembered the numb feeling of soft skin touching his face. That soft wonderful skin, he closed his eyes to the remembrance of the feeling and took a deep breath, the air smelled like jasmine, not like how the water girl had smelled. Zuko shook his head breaking his trance and looked in the mirror once more.

Zuko stole out of his room and quickly walked down the stairs, he turned a corner and stopped abruptly, there at the end of the hall was his younger sister, Azula. Normally she wouldn't be awake at this hour, or at least he didn't think she would be… after all the sun wasn't even up yet. Zuko took a step back and quickly went back down the hall he came, he took a different route to the garden, and squatted down at the pond, his mind raced with thoughts of the past, memories he had only dare to dream about, he was to afraid of dreaming about her otherwise. He closed his eyes to the image of his mother and soaked in the clear memory of her face, he wondered how exactly his mother had fallen for his father, how could someone so sweet love someone so…evil. Zuko's hand curled into a fist as he felt rage twist through him. The truth was becoming hard to handle, he had done something terribly wrong, he had taken a different path, and now… he was deeply regretting it.

A splash in the pond made him look up; sitting by the waters edge was a turtle duck. He tried not to smile, but his mouth twitched with the urge, he pulled out a small bag of bread, he pulled out a small handful of bread crumbs carefully and lifted his hand to throw the bread, but the turtle-duck winced and ducked away from him, dodging backwards and pulling his head into his shell. Zuko blinked rapidly, confused as to why the duck would be afraid, and then he remembered the day he had hit the baby turtle-duck with the rock. Perhaps this was the same baby turtle-duck that he had hit, and the baby who was now and adult, had remembered that.

Zuko sighed and lowered his hand; he tossed the bread into the water gently and waited. Slowly the turtle-duck came out of hiding and swam hesitatingly toward Zuko, he paused briefly, his black eye watching the prince before dipping his head and eating the bread, one eye still on the prince of fire. Zuko smiled a small satisfied smile, and felt something warm tingle inside of him, it was an odd feeling that had only happened to him when he had been happy with his Uncle. So, what was causing it now? Zuko glanced at the turtle-duck and then around the garden, perhaps it was just a feeling of doing something right for once.

Right, something right, not what he had done recently, he had done something terrible to people who had trusted him. He hurt them and let them down, his Uncle being one of them, and… Katara being the other, it hurt just as much to think that he hurt the girl who had hated him, and then forgiven him, when she realized they had something in common, as betraying his Uncle did. But he wasn't really sure why.

Zuko sighed and then stood up; it was no good to think of those things, it would only give him a headache, an unnecessary thing right now, especially with all the stuff he had to take care of. He looked at the turtle-duck one more time before turning to go inside, he was startled by his younger sister.

"Ugly things turtle-ducks…I prefer a good lion-bird myself." She smirked and crossed her arms, "what are you doing out here so early Zu-zu? Surely someone who has been sailing on a metal rig would want to sleep longer in a cozy bed." Azula waved a hand as she spoke, she tried to mold her face into one of innocence, but the cruel nature of hers poured out through her eyes, giving away any innocent mask. Zuko didn't even respond, instead he walked around his sister. "Aw, what's wrong Zuko? Not enjoying this life as much as the bum one you left behind?" Azula smirked evilly, Zuko paused for a moment and then continued into the palace, there was something seriously wrong with his sister, he wasn't sure what, but he had a few theories.

Closing the door to the garden he sighed, he wasn't going to get any kind of rest around here, especially not with his sister running around making a terror of herself. Zuko leaned against the red wall, and closed his eyes, the image of the girl he had betrayed flared into his head, burning him like an inner fire that could never be put out. He let her image flicker in his conscious, he didn't know why he didn't just slam the doors on the other life, but he couldn't do it, he really couldn't bring himself to slam his mind against images of her.

Zuko growled frustrated with himself, and walked down the hall, fire smoldering from his fists. Servants dodged around him, or coward in fear of his rage. Ruling the kingdom with an iron fist didn't seem to be all that his father did, he scared the courage right out of the servants too. Zuko gritted his teeth; he didn't want to be like his father that was the one thing he didn't ever want. He took a deep breath and the flames stopped, he nodded curtly to a servant who walked by. It was the least he could do for scaring the day lights out of the other few servants who had seen him. Today had just begun and he was already feeling lousy, and that was never a good sign.

So to fix his anger he went to his bedroom and sat on the floor, breathing in deeply and then out. The fire inside of him boiled down to a simmer and he felt calmer. Zuko sighed and flopped onto his back staring up at the ceiling, his thoughts were plagued by her face. He closed his eyes to her face, only to see it even more vividly behind his lids, the look on her face when he had betrayed her, when he had broken that tiny little bond he had developed between them. The bitter bite of regret dug into his gut; somehow, it bothered him a great deal that he had done such a thing to her. He wondered just what the feeling was that had grown inside of her when he had betrayed her, did it feel anything like what he felt? No, probably much worse… she had trusted him. Zuko slammed his fist on the hard ground. He had everything he had ever wanted, yet he still felt like an empty vessel drifting on a sea of remorse, depression and anger.

Zuko opened his eyes and stared at his arm that was lifted over his face, he lifted his hand so that he could see all his fingers, he gripped his hand into a fist and smacked his forehead with it, he really wasn't getting anywhere by thinking about his mistakes, he needed to stop looking back and look forward, he was the prince of the fire nation again, somehow that didn't comfort him and his gut twisted more as he thought about how unsatisfied he was…even if he did have a girlfriend, his heart was still empty and broken. Zuko sat up abruptly as the doors to his bedroom opened.

"I knocked."

The even voice of his girlfriend said as she stepped into the room, she looked the same as ever, same outfit, and same hair. Zuko forced a smile, "Hey Mai."

"Why are you on the floor?" she asked arching a black brow, "not that I care, I just think it's strange."

Zuko shrugged, "I… was in the mood." He noted her expression and got up quickly, "but I am out of the mood now." He smiled at her and she smiled back, walking to him and wrapping her arms around his waist. "You really are something else you know that?" she leaned in to kiss him and for a moment Zuko hesitated. Mai arched a brow, but before she could ask what was wrong, Zuko kissed her gently and rubbed her arms. "Sorry, I'm just tired." He explained, trying to cover up his mistake. _'Great, another mistake to add to the pile of mistakes.'_ He thought bitterly.

"Hey, what's up?" Mai asked, pulling him out of his thoughts. Zuko looked at her and shrugged, "nothing.' He smiled and wrapped an arm around her thin waist, "How about we go get some food?" Mai asked, trying to coax him into doing what she wanted. Zuko nodded, "yeah, I haven't eaten yet. What do you want?" he walked toward the door with Mai by his side, "I don't know, but I'll think of something." They both left the room and went to the dining hall, Zuko suppressing his inner emotions as they went.

The whole day Zuko had been playing up his emotions, he pretended to be happy around Mai, he pretended to be indifferent around Azula, and around anyone else he pretended he didn't see them. Doing that for the whole day was a real strain on his body, so when he reached his bedroom, he felt the impacts of it slam into him full force. He instantly fell onto his bed without changing and pulled the sheets over him, covering his body and head. Leaving his mind unguarded to the ever threatening thoughts of Katara that tried to spill out, this time they succeeded, rather heavily too, they threw themselves at Zuko like a ton of bricks, slamming his consciousness and making his dreams flit from one scene to another, the things that happened in the dreams were much different than how they had happened in real life.

Zuko actually got close to Katara, touching her face, running his fingers through her hair, he wasn't sure how that would really feel, but he could imagine. Zuko felt his sleep-lacking body twitch as he dreamed of the time when Katara had run into his arms, unwillingly when the pirates had been chasing her. He remembered how it felt to hold her arms and pull her close, in the dream he stared a long time into those beautiful blue eyes that pierced through him like ice. There were no words to describe how he felt when he looked into them. He didn't even like her, at least that's how it was the last time he had checked, so he was completely lost as to why he was dreaming about her.

He tried to pull away from the dreams, but they tugged him down like an anchor, keeping him enclosed in the things that had taken place. Zuko finally gave in and sank deeper into the dreams.

A scene from when he found her necklace flipped into his dreams, he remembered picking it up, feeling the sweet silk material slip in his fingers, and the beautifully carved pendant, he lifted the necklace to his nose and gave it a gentle sniff, it smelled of wild flowers and the sea, somehow that appealed to him in his dream, a lot more than Mai's expensive stuffy smelling perfume.

He smiled at the scent; it was definitely something to remember. Then as the rest of the dreams had been, it flipped away and another came to him, only this one was about Katara, Aang and his Uncle. Katara had just been about to heal his scar, or attempt too when Aang had busted into the cave through the wall. Katara had rushed to him and embraced him; Zuko felt something run through his veins, anger. He was angry that Aang had come and done that, his Uncle stopped him from attacking Aang, but it didn't stop the rage he felt toward the younger boy who seemed to hold Katara's attention. Zuko saw her glance back at him as she left, as if wanting to run back and drag him with her and because of that one last look Zuko felt his heart flip and throb. Why hadn't he grabbed her? Why hadn't he stopped her? Asked her to take him with her? Why… because, he had felt something deep inside of him telling him to stay. Wouldn't be the first time his gut had been wrong.

When the sun struck his face Zuko opened his eyes, he was lying on his back, and he sighed, closing his eyes, trying to understand what he had experienced last night. Maybe he was just losing his mind, Zuko nodded, yep that was it, he was losing his mind. He stood up and threw the bed together, he looked down realizing he had slept in his day clothes, he sighed annoyed and went to get changed. When Zuko exited his bedroom a servant stood there waiting for orders, he simply told the servant to be ready for when his girlfriend came over. The servant nodded and left.

Sighing with relief Zuko strolled down the hallway, feeling much better about his dreams, or nightmares he had last night, now that he knew he was just losing his mind it would all be okay. Zuko ordered the guards to open the palace doors, and when they did a crowd of fan girls screamed, he ordered them to shut the doors. Zuko sighed, there was no way he would make it out alive if he went out there looking like this, an idea sprang into his head and he quickly returned to the palace, he ignored his sister when she called to him and went to his bedroom.

He pulled out a set of black things, he touched them delicately, "Never thought I'd be using these again."

"Using what again?"

He knew that tone anywhere, Zuko shut the box and turned sharply on his sister, "what are you doing?" he asked glaring at her. Azula shrugged, "well you ignored me when I called to you so I decided to come in and see what was wrong."

"Nothings wrong now leave." Zuko growled pointing at the door. Azula arched a brow, "so touchy today brother, what's wrong? Palace life not living up to your expectations?" she walked toward him slowly.

"I said leave." Zuko said, his voice shaking.

"Hm, to listen would mean being obedient, so no." she smirked.

Zuko's fists instantly erupted in flames, Azula stopped smirking and stepped back, "alright, calm down, I'm leaving, good grief so sensitive." She shut the door. Zuko waited ten minutes before opening the trunk and pulling out his outfit, he changed and pulled on the black cloak. He went out the window and snuck out over the palace walls, he grinned, it was fun to have a bit of his adventure back. Zuko walked into the town, no one even recognized their prince as he strolled around in black, and no one seemed to care either.

It was interesting to see the world he had never been allowed to see before, all the merchants, all the people running around and buying. Zuko wondered for a moment, if Katara enjoyed doing this, walking around, seeing all the different people selling different things. Just as quickly as the thought had come he shut it out; he wasn't going to think about her or his dreams today. Instead he busied himself by looking at the items that the merchants sold, some of them were interesting and others definite rip offs. He smiled at something he saw, a fire flower carved into a necklace. It was definitely done by a master craftsman. As he admired it, the shopkeeper came over.

"What do you think of that hm?" he asked smiling.

"It's… pretty."

"Yes, yes it is, and it's perfect for a girlfriend." The shop keep smiled almost knowingly at Zuko, making Zuko fidget. "R-really? You think so huh?"

"Sure! It's wonderful, why any girl would be happy to have something so beautiful." The man exclaimed.

"Hmm, Okay, I'll take it." Zuko dropped the coins into the man's hand and took the necklace; he would give it to Mai sometime. That would be romantic.

Zuko finally went back to the palace when the sun was starting to set, he had lost himself in the wonder of the town, and had lost track of time. Zuko slipped into the palace and into his bedroom, and just as he breathed a sigh, he heard Mai's irritated voice.

"Where were you today?"

Zuko spun around and saw her sitting on his bed, "Oh, I went out." He shrugged and took off the black cloak. "In black?" she said pointing. Zuko winced, "yeah, well I… it was fun." He said changing the subject; Mai arched a brow, "fun? How could running around in a town of peasants be fun?" she asked staring at Zuko, feeling uneasy Zuko shrugged, "well, I… I bought you something." He pulled out a box, and held it out to her. Mai took the box and eyed it before opening it rather carelessly; she threw the lid down and pulled out the necklace. She didn't say anything for a long time, which made Zuko fidget, until he finally asked; "Well? Do you like it?"

Mai looked up at him, "what do I need with this? It wouldn't even match my clothes." She set it down on the nightstand; Zuko felt like someone had dropped a rock into his stomach, "Fine, I just thought you might like it." He said his eyes narrowing as he spoke. Mai shrugged, "don't get me wrong, it's really pretty, it's just not my thing." She waved a hand and turned to leave the room, "why don't we go have dinner now?" she smiled and Zuko nodded, "yeah, just let me get changed real quick." Mai nodded and left the room closing the door behind her, Zuko changed back into his prince clothes and fixed his hair, and then he walked out of the room, glancing back at the abandoned necklace.

Dinner had been a nightmare, he hadn't been hungry and when he didn't eat Mai had bugged him about it to almost no end, he decided he really needed to get to his room before he snapped at her. After she had finished eating and said goodbye, Zuko rushed to his room and closed the door, he couldn't stand the annoyed feeling that was building up inside of him. She had rejected a perfectly good gift and then expected him to be happy about it. Zuko kicked his nightstand, making the box fall off and land on the floor, the necklace spilled onto the floor. Zuko looked down at the delicate silver string that held the pendant before picking it up, he stared at the fire flower carved into it, and then he turned to the balcony, opened the doors and with all the anger and rage he could muster, he threw the necklace as far as he could, shouting with aggravation.

He slammed the balcony doors shut and stomped to his bed where he sat down hard on the edge making the bed creak in protest. Zuko crossed his arms and fumed, it was bad enough that she was always so critical about everything, but to reject him like that, it really hurt. He winced when he realized that this must be how his Uncle had felt every time he had hurt him. Zuko flopped back onto his bed and stared up at the red canopy, "what's wrong with me?" he asked to his bedroom. He was definitely losing his mind, because now he was talking to his room. _'All I wanted to do was pull us together, I was really hoping that necklace would help us get closer, I mean…it would be our little thing, when she wore the necklace I would smile at her and she would know what I was smiling about. It would be an understanding that we would only know about, and whenever we were around anyone else, they wouldn't get it…So, what did I do wrong? She didn't even… consider wearing it.'_

Zuko placed an arm over his head and sighed.

"Wake up dum-dum." Azula said from the doorway, making Zuko sit up.

"What do you want?" Zuko asked.

"Were going to the beach in a few weeks, just a heads up," Azula said waving a hand casually.

"The beach?" Zuko said staring at her in disbelief, "why?"

"I don't know it was father's idea," Azula said crossing her arms, "anyone, just be ready when the time comes." She turned and left the room, closing the doors behind her. Zuko flopped backward onto the bed again and groaned loudly, he felt like a child with everyone treating him like this, even his Father seemed to think it was necessary to send him away, and he had to wonder why. Zuko sat up frustrated with all the happenings of today, he changed into more comfortable clothes and wandered from his room, heading to the gardens.

Zuko stood in front of the pond and watched the moon glint off the water, he had a sudden flash back of two fish weaving in and out of each other in a pond much like the one he stood in front of, that had been in the North pole, he remembered the fish, and he remembered that he had fought Katara there. Zuko shook himself from the flash-back and reached out toward the water, he wasn't sure why, but his fingers touched the top of the water where the moon reflected, he felt something touch his hand, he quickly yanked it back, startled.

Carefully and slowly, he reached back toward the water and dipped his hand in, he flinched when he felt something touch his finger, but the thing didn't move so, he reach deeper and gripped what ever it was and pulled it up. Zuko opened his hand and looked down at the thing he had captured. It was the necklace, almost unrecognizable as the same brilliant beauty he had earlier; it was covered in mud and some sort of green grass. He rinsed it off in the pond, making sure to get every piece of mud off, until it was a bit cleaner, it was almost the same as it had been earlier that day.

He sighed and pulled the necklace out so it stretched over his arm and hand. "Look at you, just a bit of soil and you have already lost some of your brilliance." Zuko said, he looked up at the moon and then back at the necklace, he put the pendant into the moonlight and glinted it, Zuko wondered if any necklace had ever looked so beautiful before, even when it was dirty.

A thought struck Zuko, this necklace was a lot like him, even though it had been disregarded and dirtied, someone had found it and pulled it out of the mud pit it had been stuck in. Someone had saved it; he fingered the necklace and wondered what it would've been like if he had let someone save him, would things be different, or would he still be the way he was right now. Zuko closed his eyes and thought about his Uncle, so many times his uncle had tried his hardest to save him from falling, but he had never let his Uncle help him, instead he had ridiculed him. Zuko opened his eyes and looked at the necklace; he wouldn't let anything happen to this necklace, not now, not ever. He closed his hand around the pendant and stood up; he walked back inside and held the necklace tight so it wouldn't slip from his grip.

Zuko went back into his room and sat on the edge of his bed, he placed the necklace down on the nightstand gently, making sure it was settled nicely, then he pulled back the blankets and slid under, he turned on his side so he could see the necklace, he stared at it for a long time, wondering what he would use to clean it with, and how he would clean it off. It needed to be done with well so it wouldn't stain the silver chain. Zuko nodded absently when he decided he would have to find some special cleaner for it. He would have to find a wooden box or something pretty to match it. Or maybe a plain box so no one would think about stealing it, no a pretty wooden box with markings carved all on it, yes, it was perfect. Zuko smiled as he stared at the necklace, it deserved to be treated like this, with kindness.

For a moment Zuko thought about his mother, wondering if she would like this necklace and if she would cherish it because it was something from him, he wondered if she would be proud of him for picking such a pretty item. Zuko felt tears burn his eyes, what would his mother say about the choices he had made, would she be proud of him? Or be ashamed that her son had chosen to take a path that conflicted his heart.

Several tears fell down his pale skin, and he closed his eyes, cutting off the flow of tears, Zuko didn't want to think about what his mother would say, or how she would say it. So instead he re-focused on his necklace, Zuko reached out gently and fingered the pendant, he left his hand up there to cover the pendant, "goodnight…" he whispered, before closing his eyes to the sleep that had been forcing his eyelids shut.

_**To Be Continued....**_

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**a/n:** a little explaination here for some of you readers who were freaked out by Zuko's attachment to the necklace. While writing this bit I really liked the idea of Zuko having something to hold onto like Katara has. And a necklace seemed like the perfect idea, rejected by Mai and Zuko, Zuko felt a deep connection to it because of his situation, it was something that reminded him of himself. Eventually he is going to give it to Katara ^3^ so just wait for that. Once again thank you for reading and Reviews are appreciated.


	2. Chapter 2

"**Never took the road before, Destination unknown"-Destination Unknown, Marietta**

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When Zuko woke up the morning of the day they planned to go to the beach, he glanced out the window and judged it was around eight o'clock, he sighed and pushed the blankets and sheets away from him and just as he was about to stand up the doors to his bedroom opened and a servant bustled in and looked at Zuko nervously. "I-I was instructed to come in and pack your things, my Prince, I-I… am really sorry if I disturbed you."

Zuko waved a hand giving him the approval he needed.

"T-thank you sir." The servant busied himself with packing Zuko's belongings as Zuko got up from bed and stretched, he looked at the wooden box sitting on his nightstand and picked it up carefully, he ran a finger over the top of the small box that held the necklace, then he looked up at the servant.

"Hey, put this with my stuff too, but make sure it goes somewhere it won't break." He ordered putting the box gently into the servant's hand.

"Y-yes sir." The servant stammered. Zuko turned and left the room, he intended to go to the kitchen to find some breakfast, but before he made it halfway down the hall, a male servant stopped him, "My Prince, I have breakfast ready for you, if you will follow me." Zuko recognized the man as someone who strolled the halls often, a head servant or something like that.

"Alright," Zuko replied, and followed the man to a room, the servant opened the door which revealed a room with a long table in it, with Mai, Ty Lee and Azula sitting at it, Zuko rolled his eyes and sat down in his seat, feeling grumpier than usual, there was definitely something wrong with him, he would be lying to himself if he said he didn't know what was wrong, he did have a theory as to what it might be.

"Well, Good Morning Zu-zu, and how did you sleep?" Azula asked in her haughty tone as she forked her bacon and put it into her mouth. Zuko watched her disgustedly for a moment and then replied; "I slept fairly well." He muttered before forking his own bacon and eating it.

"I didn't sleep very well at all." Mai said in her dull voice. Ty Lee grinned, "I slept great!" she said cheerily, making Azula and Mai roll their eyes, Zuko had to admit that even if she was a ditz, she could be happy in almost any situation and that was a good thing sometimes.

"Hurry up you three, we have to leave soon." Azula said, before standing up and leaving the room. Zuko ate at a normal pace, while Ty Lee stuffed the food into her mouth and Mai just stood up and left the room. Ty Lee glanced at Zuko, "Aren't you going to eat faster?" she asked.

"No, why should I get an upset stomach because my sister says I need to hurry?" he said snorting indignantly. Ty Lee blinked rapidly, "Wow… you are brave." She giggled and stood up, "don't take too long or else she may get angry." And on that note Ty Lee pranced from the room. Zuko rolled his golden eyes, like he cared if his pushy sister got angry and shot some lightening around. Finally, after five more minutes, he finished and left the room, only to find a glaring Azula looking at him.

"What took you so long?" she practically snarled.

"I was eating." Zuko replied before walking around her and stopping next to Mai, "shall we go?" he asked raising his brows in question, then he put his arm around Mai's waist and guided her to the doors that lead outside to the dock. Azula snarled and stormed out behind them. Zuko couldn't help smiling a little; after all he didn't get to make his sister mad that often, so it was nice to get one up on her. Once they had all boarded the ship, they were off.

Zuko sat down on a bench covered in soft red material, he looked out over the ocean and sighed deeply, he was annoyed, his father hadn't even bothered to ask him if he wanted to help him or anything. He felt like a child, being sent away from some small spat. Zuko brushed his long bangs from his face and leaned over the side of the boat, he spotted a few fish from where he sat, but other than that there was nothing truly interesting about the sea. Zuko remembered the necklace he had asked the servant to pack and wondered if it was safe right now and not jostling around in the cargo hold.

"I'll be right back." He said standing and leaving, he walked down to the cargo hold without drawing attention to himself, and opened the door, he slipped inside and closed the door behind him. Zuko carefully lit a lamp and scanned the room for his bag, spotting it, he made his way toward the corner of the room, where it had been pushed up against the wall. He pulled it over the other bags and sat down, pulling it into his lap, he opened the satchel like bag and looked inside. At first he didn't see it and his heart jolted, then he pulled out a red scarf, realizing he didn't own anything like this, he unwrapped it.

The tiny box fell out into his hand; Zuko sighed with relief, and fingered the wood. "Good, you're safe." He said, before opening it gently, sitting where he had left it was the necklace, shimmering in the firelight. He smiled, and pulled it out, it was definitely one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen, and he couldn't get over it, he probably wouldn't stop staring at it until he found something that compared or was even more beautiful than it.

Suddenly the image of a beautiful girl with copper skin, black hair and blue eyes came into his mind, he blinked rapidly, where did that come from? He thought. Oh well, he shrugged it off and continued to admire the necklace, then he glanced around, he didn't think anyone had followed him in, and he was right, so he slipped the necklace over his head and button up his shirt to hide it. He would of course take it off later so no one questioned him about it. The pendant felt cool against his skin, and he shivered, and then relaxed as it warmed up, he liked the feeling of the pendant pressing into his skin.

Zuko stood up, deciding it might be a good idea to get back to the others before one of them came to find him. He quietly closed the door as he stepped out and walked back to where the others were, none of them had left their spots, and they all looked bored out of their minds. Zuko smothered a smile at the frown on his sisters face, and took his seat next to Mai. It's going to be a really long trip, he thought.

The first things that happened on the island were a blur to Zuko, until his anger got the better of him, he skulked away from the others and wandered down the beach, thinking. He thought of his father, and even though his father approved of him, he hadn't kept him around, then his mind switched to Mai, he was having a hard time with their relationship. He often wondered if she really liked him or if she only liked him because he was a prince, he had been fairly certain at one point, though he didn't remember when, that she liked him for who he was, but… now that she seemed to brush off everything he offered her, he was seriously questioning their bond. If they even still had one.

Zuko watched his shadow as the moonlight threw it across the beach into a giant form that made him look like someone else completely. He glanced up at the moon and stopped on the beach, staring up at the shape, it was round and glowed brilliantly. He reached out to it with one of his hands and closed his hand into a fist, imagining that he was grabbing it. Zuko opened his hand and released the moon, he looked down at the silver chain that that was glowing slightly from the rays of moonlight, he unbuttoned his shirt and pulled out the necklace, he had just put it back on before leaving. No one would understand why he treasured this thing; he gently pressed his fingers into the pendant, before letting it drop.

He continued on the way he was going, and finally came to his old house, he looked up at it, and then kicked in the doors. They never came here anymore, not since his mother had died, Zuko scanned the room and then walked over to a table, picking up the picture of his family, he ran his hand over the picture, and then put it down, he picked up the round cement mold with a small hand print in it. Zuko placed his much larger hand over it, so many things had changed since he had been here, he had gone off looking for the avatar, he had found him, then lost him, then found him, and then he had been betrayed by his sister, his Uncle and him had to be alone and fend for themselves.

He had suffered through so much, and yet so little, the people he had met on his journey had gone through much more, they had been hurt by the fire nation, and were still being hurt by them. Zuko flinched, someday, he knew that all of this would make sense, and he hoped it would be soon.

"Hey."

The voice of Azula startled him, and he turned around, she leaned on the door frame watching him. "Come on, let's go." She said, sounding stressed that she even had to standing in a place that was filled with so much memory and pain. Zuko nodded, "Okay." He set the cement circle down and followed Azula back down the beach.

"What were you doing?" she asked, glancing at him over her shoulder. Zuko looked up at her, he eyed her for a moment, "I...I'm not even sure how I got there." He said honestly. Azula arched a sharp brow, "perhaps you went there absently, you know… you were drawn there." She offered waving a hand.

"Yeah, probably," Zuko said. They were silent for the rest of the walk, when they finally reached the camp site, Mai and Ty Lee were sitting on separate seats, staring at the sand.

Zuko sighed, and decided he should try to fix what had happened earlier, he smiled and stepped toward her, "hey are you cold?" he asked, trying to put a hand on her. She slapped his hand away, "I'm still mad at you." Mai hissed. Zuko narrowed his eyes, but Ty Lee interrupted anything he may have said, "I'm freezing!" she said. Zuko smiled at her, "I'll start a fire, I know where I can get some stuff to burn."

In a few minutes he had started a fire, things from his old home burned in the wicked flames, "Are you sure you want to do that?" Ty Lee asked.

"I don't care about it." Zuko said, throwing the painted picture of his family into the flames that greedily consumed it. Mai shook her head, and looked away from him. Zuko looked into the flames, he heard what they were talking about, but most of their words were fuzzy, and when they asked him questions, he answered in a confused state, until finally he become frustrated and shouted; "Myself!" making the flames burst, and fly up into the air. When his rage dissipated so did the fire. "Why?" Asked Azula a brow arched, Zuko didn't answer instead he looked down, he wasn't really sure why either.

After that, Zuko made up with Mai, he felt a little better for letting his rage out, but something still simmered inside of him. A longing to do something, but he couldn't figure what it was yet, he had to wait, wait until the answer made itself known to him, and then… then he would act on it and get rid of the burning feeling that had settled in his stomach.

When they went back home, Zuko felt butterflies flop in his stomach, he felt closer to the answer by just being home. Zuko found that he was extremely grateful for his bedroom, and quickly flopped onto his bed, stretching out on the soft, silky covers. He looked up at the canopy and then reached up and fingered the necklace. Soon, very soon he would have the answers he had been searching for. But for now, he intended to sleep, and not wake up until tomorrow. Zuko clamped his eyes shut and sank into the dark sleep, hoping to get the rest he needed that he hadn't gotten at the beach.

The doors to Zuko's bedroom flew open, the prince himself walked into the room, and he threw his hair dress down and sat on the bed, putting his face in his hands. The war meeting had gone from good to bad in only a matter of seconds, and now he didn't know what to do, he had been everything his father wanted, he had been the son his father had wanted him to be. But even still, Zuko didn't feel satisfied, in fact he had felt sick during the war meeting, something that had twisted his gut and curdled the food in his stomach, Zuko felt sick, something inside of him told him he had the answer he needed.

Zuko looked around at the room, and then he stood up and went out, he walked down the hallway of the palace, passing busy servants, he turned and looked out at the garden, he lingered in the doorway and then continued on, he would stop there later. Zuko turned a corner and passed his sister's bedroom, he took in everything about the palace, even the kitchen. Zuko headed back to the garden, where he sat down by the pond. He watched the turtle-ducks swim, and watched the sun glint on the horizon, tomorrow would be the eclipse.

He felt the presence of someone behind him before he heard them; he glanced back at the person. "What are you doing here?" he asked calmly.

Ty Lee stood in the doorway, her hand placed on the door frame, "You… you're going to leave aren't you?" she said, her tone questioning. Zuko looked back at the pond, "…what makes you think that?" he asked watching one of the turtle-ducks paddle toward him and then swerve. "I can tell," she said smiling and stepping toward him, "you have that look."

Zuko turned his head toward her, "I have no choice," He didn't know why he was telling miss ditz, but there was something about her at this moment, she seemed to understand him. Ty Lee smiled and nodded, "I know, I mean hey, it's what you gotta do right?"

"Yeah." Zuko looked back at the pond, "it won't be easy, but it's something… I have to do." A thought struck him and he turned toward her, "you aren't going to tell anyone before the time comes are you?" he said, his voice hardening.

"No, I wouldn't do that, besides, you will probably make it known." Ty Lee shrugged; she stood next to him now and smiled down at the turtle-ducks. "Don't worry, I know how you feel."

"…No, I don't think you can understand completely." Zuko said, looking up at her. Ty Lee looked down at him, "Maybe not, but, maybe I can understand on a bit of a different level." She smiled brightly. Zuko blinked rapidly, startled by the actual intelligence in her eyes, where had she been hiding that? "You know… I always thought you were just an idiot who followed Azula around because you adored her."

Ty Lee smiled, "In a way, I do, but Azula is my friend…" she hesitated, "so… yeah, I follow her."

"It's not a pleasant feeling being ordered around by a tyrant is it?" Zuko said, shifting his position so he faced the pond again. Ty Lee looked down at the ground, "…Sometimes… it's really hard… and I don't know what to do…" her voice shook as she spoke, "but… I don't really have a choice… you know Azula."

"Ha, no kidding," Zuko muttered, rolling his eyes.

"I hope you find what you are looking for when you leave Zuko, I've had fun being with you." Ty Lee smiled, "you are a good friend, even if you do have anger issues." She giggled lightly. Zuko sighed, "yeah, thanks…" he looked up at her and smiled a tiny smile, "you're not to bad yourself."

Ty Lee grinned at him and then looked back at the turtle-ducks, "they are really cute."

"Yeah."

The next morning, Zuko rose early; he had a few hours until the invasion, he had a some things to take care of, so he changed quickly and went down the hall, he walked a distance, until he reached his mother's shrine, he lit two sticks of incense and placed them next to the picture of his mother, the he got down on his knees and placed his hands together. "I know I haven't been a good son, the kind of son you would be proud of, but now… I am going to set things right, I am going to set everything right." Zuko looked up into the face of his mother, then he stood and walked away. He took a short-cut to his room and pulled the red cloak on that he had lain out on his bed.

Zuko picked up his sword and put in over his shoulder and chest. He took a deep breath and then pulled the hood over his head, and walked out of the room. The sounds of war greeted his ears as he walked, but he wasn't worried, the invasion had a ways to go before they reached the inner city. He paced himself, and took the secret passage way to the tunnels below the city, the guards bolted the doors behind him, and he knew he was the last one in.

He didn't bother to look back, he knew they were watching him, Zuko walked down the twisting passage ways, and took a sharp turn right. He wasn't thinking about anything except for what he would say to his father, all the things he had been dying to say since he was thrown from the kingdom. Zuko remembered when he had thought he had lost his honor because of what his father had done, he had been naïve, ones honor isn't found in status or money, it's found within and the honor you find in the good things you have done, being in the wild had made him realize now, that he had always had his honor, all he had to do was look for it.

Zuko stopped outside a metal door, and then he sighed, it was now or never. Zuko was sure of everything that happened in that room, he was confident in himself, and he felt he could face his father now, no matter what, and that's exactly what he did; he remembered every word he said, every expression that crossed his father's face and every single move he had made. So when Lord Ozai threw the lightening at him, Zuko had been ready.

The feeling of the lightening was unlike anything Zuko had ever felt before; it was powerful, and warm. It was no wonder his sister used it so much, it made you feel like you were in total control of everything around you, Zuko looked up at his father, he had looked up to this man, he had wanted Ozai to be proud of him, but no longer, he no longer needed his father, he had the best Uncle in the whole word.

And with that thought, Zuko shot the lightening back at his Father, with all the rage that had built up over the years, and before his Father could re-act, he left. Zuko made his way out of the passage ways, knocking out two guards who tried to stop him, and raced across the city that was coming back to life with the eclipse over. He ran passed the citizens, and past the guards, he ran toward the jail where his Uncle was housed, and busted through the doors, he ran past a fallen guard who flinched away from him, and into the room.

"Uncle!" he shouted, hoping to hear his Uncle's voice. But he didn't, and he saw why, his Uncle was gone, the metal bars had been torn away from each other. He stared in shock for a moment and then turned to the guard who was lying on the floor. Zuko bent down furious and grabbed the man's shirt, "Where is he?!" he asked.

"G-gone, I-I've never seen anything like it, he was like a one man army." The guard said, his voice shaking with panic and fear. Zuko jumped to his feet releasing the man's shirt and ran out of the jail, if his Uncle was gone; he knew he had to leave too. He ran back down the hallway, and out the way he came. Zuko ran across the square and ran toward the place where they stored any flight machines. At first he glance, he like the idea of the big metal blimps, then he noticed the hot air balloon. Zuko's eyebrows rose and he walked over to it, "Hello." He said.

Then he jumped into the basket, feeling it shift under his feet, He glanced around and then noticed the metal stove, Zuko walked over to it and opened the medium sized door on the side of it, and then he put some wood in it, "Here goes nothin'." He mumbled before blasting a huge ball of fire into the stove. At first the wood only simmered and then it burst into flame, the balloon slowly started to lift. As it tugged off the ground Zuko heard it creak, and then it lifted up into the sky so fast that Zuko flew backwards and slammed into the side of the basket.

"Ow!" he groaned, rubbing the back of his neck, "stupid balloon." He muttered, standing and brushing himself off he walked over to the front of the balloon and gripped the string that dangled down to control the heat, he scanned the ground for the giant bison, but didn't see him, suddenly the creature burst through the clouds not to far from him, sending a gust of wind at him. Which nearly knocked his balloon from the sky, Zuko quickly steadied it and looked at the bison, all he had to do was follow it, that was the easy part…then he had to do a lot of talking. And hopefully it wouldn't be too hard to be accepted by them.

Zuko winced when he thought about Katara, he wasn't sure how she would react, but he knew it wouldn't be good, after how she had practically yelled at him in the crystal prison, but who knew; maybe she would be nicer to him when she realized he really had changed.

He was different, and if he had to he would prove it, the whole time he had been in the palace, he had been realizing slowly that it wasn't the place for him, that he belong somewhere else, he belonged along side the Avatar, to fight with him. Zuko sighed, he had a long way to go, he might as well try to rest a little, instead of thinking about the things that he would have to do later, it would only bother him like an itch he couldn't scratch. So Zuko settled for napping, he closed his eyes and dreamed.

_"Hey, I… just wanted you all to know.. I am good now… yeah, so… if you would let me into your group, I think I will make a great ally." The silence that echoed after his words made him flinch. "What you think we will just accept you after everything you've done to us?" Sokka growled, waving his weapon at Zuko. Zuko stepped away from Sokka, "you believe me right Aang?" he said looking at the boy desperately, instead of agreeing with Zuko, Aang looked away. _

_"Guys…I think we can trust him." The voice of Katara rang through the darkness and suddenly she appeared, she walked toward him and placed a hand on his shoulder, "Zuko, I believe you have changed, and… I trust you." She smiled warmly. Zuko blinked shocked by her, he hadn't expected her to be so kind. "You mean you aren't mad at me for what I did?" he asked. _

_Katara laughed lightly, and shook her head, "No, I'm not mad, I know you now Zuko and I know better than to think that you would ever betray us like that again. So whatever you have done in the past is forgiven now." Katara smiled and then wrapped her arm around his shoulders, before looking at the others, "what do you think?" she asked. Sokka glowered at him, "I still don't trust you." He said pointing his weapon at Zuko. Toph the blind earth bender sighed, "I think…it'll be ok." _

_Everyone looked at Aang, "Aang?" Katara said, her eyebrows rising, "what about you?" _

_Aang looked up at Zuko, his eyes narrowed, "Fine, you can join us, but one mess up and you won't last long." The harsh words caught Zuko off guard, wasn't he supposed to be a peaceful person? After all he was the Avatar, or maybe he just held an anger streak inside that he never showed anyone. _

_Katara smiled and looked at Zuko, "see?" she then looked back at Aang and walked over to him and pulled him into a hug. A fire set off in Zuko like one he had never felt before, he didn't like her hugging Aang. Zuko's eyes narrowed and he glowered at the Avatar, he would be friend the Avatar, he would help the Avatar, but it didn't mean he had to put up with Aang taking all of Katara's time. Zuko crossed his arms and turned away from the sight. _

Zuko sat up suddenly, cold sweat dripping down his face, he looked around frantically, "what…what was that?" he said out loud, running a hand through his thick hair, "what a weird dream." He muttered. Zuko looked up at the balloon and realized it was sinking; he jumped up and opened the door, blasting some more fire onto the burning wood. Zuko wiped the sweat from his face and looked toward the horizon, "I really hope what happens isn't like that." He muttered, he thought he had rid himself of those dreams a long time ago, but apparently he was wrong.

The sun glittered brilliantly on the horizon as he followed the Avatar. Some time during the night he had lost sight of the bison, and now he was just following his instincts, he had a good feeling that they would be going to the Southern Air Temple. He had been there once before and remembered where it was. Zuko guided the hot air balloon, and landed it a good distance from the temple, where he disembarked and followed an ancient path to the edge of the cliff.

Zuko peered over the edge and gulped, it was a long drop, he walked back to the balloon and pulled out the rope he had brought, he went back to the cliff and secured the rope to a tree, then he threw the other part over the edge and slid down the rope, he looked up in time to see the giant bison fly across the sky. He quickly dropped the rest of the way and hid from view; he waited a moment and then checked the bison had disappeared.

Zuko sighed with relief and looked out from where he stood, he remembered when his Uncle and he had been here, he shook his head, he had been such a foolish person, and only up until recently had he changed for the better. He took in a deep breath and then walked away from the area, soon the Avatar and his friends would be down there and he didn't want them to see him just yet, he wanted to make his own entrance and he wanted to make sure they understood him thoroughly. Zuko jogged up the steps that lead back up to the cliff side. Why he hadn't taken them down he didn't know, he sighed, and sometimes he could really annoy himself.

Dodging his way back to a greener part of the land, he set up a makeshift camp and crossed his arms pondering what he would do next, he definitely needed to come up with a speech for when he went to speak to them, but he didn't know what to say. Zuko looked at the log that seemed to be sitting conveniently in front of him, and a badger-frog stared at him. "What do you think I should say?" he asked the badger-frog, who just blinked and stared. Zuko sighed, "This isn't going to be easy, but I have to think of something that will convince them that I am good and not trying to kill the Avatar." Zuko started to pace in front of the log, his pointer finger resting on his chin and his other arm supporting his left arm.

"Hi, Zuko here," he mumbled and then looked up at the badger-frog, "that's it." He said, "I can do that!" Zuko stood in front of the badger-frog once again.

"Hi, Zuko here, I was just in the area and decided hey, why not ask them if I can be a part of their group?" Zuko stopped and smacked his forehead, "That's terrible…" he muttered. Zuko glanced up at the badger-frog, "didn't you think it was terrible?"

The badger-frog croaked and then hopped away, Zuko hung his head, "yeah, I thought so too."

_**To Be Continued...**_

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**a/n:** I hope you enjoyed the second chapter! Please Reviews! Thank you!


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** Hello! Welcome to the Third Chapter of AUR! I am so glad you all have been with me this far and I just thought I would tell you early on, that I was told I have bad punctuation, please forgive me because yes I do know I have bad punctuation, I pay more attention to the story than to that . even on other people's stories. Also, a little warning, this chapter is mostly about their thoughts, etc. It comes from three points of View, Zuko, Toph and Katara. You get to see a bit of them, and I hope you enjoy it, because it was lots of fun for me to fill in the blanks that were left by Mike and Bryan. Another tip for those who may not understand the beginning of this story, it's after Zuko asked them about letting him into their group, so yeah... you would probably have figured that out. ^^ Thanks again for reading! Reviews are always welcome!

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**"Gonna' take a sentimental journey.**

**Gonna' set my heart at ease.**

**Gonna' make a sentimental journey**

**to renew old memories." –Sentimental Journey, Doris day.**

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People skills, that was what Zuko lacked, he knew he lacked it because he always lost his temper when people didn't understand him, fortunately when he had been talking to the group; he hadn't gotten nearly as mad as he could have. He only tried to make them understand, and everything had gone wrong. Was it really his fault that they couldn't understand him? He had made it very clear he no longer wanted anything to do with

Azula and her plans…hadn't he?

Zuko sat on a rock with his head in his hands, contemplating what his next move would be. Zuko ran a hand over his face and looked up at the tent that had been sitting there for quite some time; it was being overgrown by weeds. He sighed and closed his eyes.

_'What do you want from me?! What do you all want? I don't know what to do to prove to you that I am…not…bad.'_ Zuko crossed his arms, _'this isn't my fault, Darn it!!... Okay, so maybe it is, but… not all of it! Sure I chased them all over the world…and yeah, I tried to kill Aang, but what can I say? I wasn't good back then.'_ Zuko rolled his eyes, _'Good work not even in your own mind can you make yourself sound good! You are really something else Zuko.'_ Zuko flopped down on the ground and stared at the dirt, he was starting to feel cold, even though the sun had just barely set.

"Guess I should make a fire." He mumbled absently, he stood and walked off, Zuko didn't have much trouble finding fire wood after all he was surrounded trees. He collected an armful of sticks and small pieces of wood, and returned to his camp, he set the wood down and placed rocks in a circle, for a make-shift camp-fire. Zuko placed the wood on the dirt, in the middle of the ring, and then created a flame in one hand and placed it on the sticks and thick pieces of tree. The wood caught it and brought it to life, the wind made it flicker and cast dancing shadows across Zuko's face.

With an exhausted breath, Zuko flopped backwards and put his arms behind his head and stared up at the stars, they twinkled down at him, as if trying to give him hope for the future. Zuko took deep and even breathes, he was feeling frustrated, but the stars were stunning, and he simply couldn't deny them his eyes. He had to watch them; they were winking for him after all. Zuko snorted, he felt ridiculous, but he wondered if his mother had ever stared up at the stars longingly, wishing for something more than what she had. He wondered if his Mother had ever wanted to get away from her life at the palace, had she ever wanted to be someone else, to escape from the life she had put herself into. Zuko wondered if she could go back…would she?

_'Stop it Zuko, stop torturing yourself…'_ a small voice whispered in the back of his mind, but he couldn't help it, the thoughts intruded on him, and swarmed him like an angry nest of hornets. Stinging him, and bringing him pain, he closed his eyes and felt the burning tears subdue for now, he refused to let them fall, he had no right to be thinking like this, he needed to be thinking of a way to get into the Avatar's group.

A rustling sound alerted him to someone in the woods, Zuko sat up quickly, "Who is it?!" he asked loudly.

"It's me!" he heard a voice say, but it was hard to decipher, so without thinking he threw flame, "Stay back!" he shouted. A shockingly loud scream rang in his ears, and he jumped up, _'No!! I burned the Earth Bender!'_ he thought panicked.

"You burned me!" she hissed scared and furious at the same time.

"I'm sorry! I didn't know it was you." He blurted, trying to get close to her, "Please, let me help you!" he dodged the rocks that nearly hit him in the face, one skimmed his side and he winced. "Please!" he grabbed her shoulder, but she reacted badly.

"Get off! Get off me!" she shouted and hit him directly in the gut with a medium boulder.

"Oof!" Zuko fell backwards and onto the ground, "Please! Come back! I'm sorry!!" But the small girl had scurried away from his reach, it was too late. Zuko slammed a fist on the ground and then flopped backwards again, "AGGH! Why am I so bad at being good!?" he screamed furious with his own suspicion, he had been nervous and he had hurt one of the Avatar's friends. Now he knew it would be extremely hard to get into their group, she would probably tell them all about it and they would send him over the cliff.

"Just great! I am such an idiot!" he snarled standing up and pacing around the fire, "Why did I have to do that? I could have warned her without throwing flames! Stupid!!" Zuko slammed his palm against his forehead and felt a dull throb awaken in his skull, "Ow..." he muttered, "that's going to last all night I bet."

Zuko glanced at the fire, and then without looking back, walked away from the camp, heading toward the open field. He had a lot of thinking to do, but he couldn't do it there, not with what had just happened he needed to find peace. Zuko edged around the trees, trying to be careful this time, and finally entered the clearing. He looked up at the black sky scattered with diamonds.

"Here…" he whispered to the wind, before walking to the center of the field and sitting down. He crossed his legs and placed his hands on his knees and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath he concentrated on the situation at hand. He would have to explain to them what happened, and apologize to the earth-bender. He had seen her in action once, or at least he thought he had, and she was really good at fighting, he shouldn't have treated her like that.

Zuko suddenly winced, he had just imagined himself telling that to Katara, and having her snarl back at him. "Of course, it was just _that_ convenient! You had a great excuse for hurting one of our friends! Suuure, that'll make us want to let you join!" Zuko shuddered, she would be right, the situation would look all too convenient, but why would he purposely hurt her if he wanted into the group…perhaps misdirected rage. Zuko groaned, and rolled that thought away, bringing into mind his Uncle.

He wondered where he was, where his Uncle had gone too when he had broken out of jail, without his Uncle, Zuko felt completely lost. What had he been thinking? Oh yeah, he had been thinking he wanted his honor and his "right," now that he thought about it from this view, none of that was worth betraying his Uncle…but he had learned a valuable lesson. And he had felt what it was like to be Prince, he might have longed for that feeling if he hadn't gone there first, even though he had been over so many mountains to reach such smooth ground, he was actually thankful for them, every single rut in his road, he was thankful for.

Zuko sat up straighter, and twisted his thoughts to Azula, she was probably happy he was gone, after all, she had never been happy he was ever there. Not even when she pretended to be happy. She was probably being smug about it and ordering all the extra servants around now that he was gone, Zuko snorted, good riddance, he didn't like living in the same palace with her anyway. His no good, doubling-crossing younger sister, she had always been like that, it should have been obvious to him, well it had been painfully obvious when he was a kid. Azula had always gotten him into trouble, making him skip classes, taking him to the target grounds when no adults were around, he had almost killed a gardener because he didn't know how to use a bow.

Even though the poor man had almost died, Azula had laughed about it, she had found it amusing, even when she got in trouble she laughed, she knew that Ozai was to proud of her to care what mistakes she made. Zuko rolled his eyes under his closed lids, why had he ever trusted her, he would never know.

Zuko sighed, he was stupid a lot in his life, and he had been blinded by so much rage and hate that he hadn't been able to see the answer right in front of him, the one that had been hitting him in the face the whole time. No wonder he always had headaches. Zuko groaned and pinched in between his eyebrows, "man I get a migraine just thinking about it." He muttered. Zuko looked up at the field around him, he was completely alone, was this something he had always wanted? No, he had wanted to be accepted… but he had been denied everywhere.

Annoyed with his thoughts he re-positioned himself, sitting up again and this time thinking back to when his mother had been around. She had always greeted him with such love and care; it had filled him and made him happy. But now, he had a hole where that love had been, and nothing could fill it… he knew that. His Mother was kind-hearted, and treated everything and everyone like it had a purpose, that everything around her had meaning, and she believed no matter what happened that he would become a good man, he had failed her, more than once on that account. But now he was making it right. Zuko smiled at that thought, he wondered what his mother would say to him now, if she would hug him and hold him close to her. Whispering to him that she was proud, and loved him so much, a painfully sharp stabbing feeling cut deep into his chest and stretched out, making his whole body ache.

He had felt sorrow for the loss of his mother, but, this feeling was worse than he had ever felt before. It was terrible, utter torture.

Zuko ground his teeth, it was all he could do to yank his mind from his Mother, he didn't know what else to think about, he was all out of subjects…wait, he still had one more Mai. She was his sister's friend, she had helped Azula in fighting the avatar, and she would probably still assist Azula, just to get back at him for leaving her. Sure, Mai had made him happy, but…there had been that same emptiness inside of him that she couldn't fill, Mai, his girlfriend, or ex-girlfriend as the case was. He wasn't even sure what it was that couldn't be filled, if he knew, then he would solve the problem immediately, but there was no way for him to know. Because never before had he felt like this, Zuko shifted his feet out from under his legs and then stretched out onto the lush green grass that welcomed him like a soft bed. His whole life had been down hill; surely it could only go up from here. Or at least he hoped that was how it would be.

"Man, who am I kidding? I really need a lucky break if they ever decide to forgive me for everything I have ever done to them, I definitely deserve to be treated the way I was today, rejected, what can I do…" Zuko place an arm over his eyes as he thought, it definitely wasn't easy to think about how badly he would probably get hurt if he returned to the group and asked to join again, but he couldn't see any other alternatives, there wasn't any opportunity.

"Everything is an opportunity, if you look at it the right way." He mumbled, "But not all opportunity is the right kind. So… how do you judge the good from the bad?" he pulled his arm from his face, "great, now I am talking like Uncle!" he said irritated, he threw his hands up in the air.

"Face it Zuko, you screwed up so badly that you will never get another chance to join them!" He paused and looked up at the stars, "I wonder what they are thinking."

Somewhere far away from Zuko, Toph struggled on all fours as she crawled away from the scene of the accident, she had burrowed into the ground, but now she couldn't find her way out. She sat with her back against the dirt wall, her blind eyes unmoving. Toph sighed, "Well, that's just great, another reason for Katara to hate him." She muttered, "What a perfect story for me to tell them when I get back, 'Hey guess what guys? I went to see Zuko! Yeah, and he burned my feet.'" She said with heavy sarcasm. Toph slammed her fist against the dirt, "Dang it!" she snarled.

The earth shook around her and small rocks scraped against her feet, making her wince, it hurt a lot for anything to just brush against it. "Zuko didn't mean too." She whispered softly, trying to comfort herself, "he was only defending himself because he thought I was an enemy, sure he could have checked first and maybe I would be sitting with him talking right now, but…what can you do? The guy's probably more traumatized than we are about being attacked." Toph stopped speaking and narrowed her eyes, "great! Now I am talking to myself! I have to keep moving." Toph slammed her hands against the dirt and a hole opened deeper into the ground, it was harder to read the ground with her hands than with her feet, but she had confidence she could find some part of the temple.

Otherwise, she would have to go back, and do it the hard way, the hard way for Toph was crawling down steps, and taking the route that normal people took, sure it was ok when you wanted to do it. But she didn't want to just show up out of the blue like that with wounded feet, perhaps, she felt deep down inside, that she wanted to delay the wrath they would dish out on Zuko when they found out.

Toph slowed her movements and placed her hand on the ground in front of her, _'I don't want to rush Zuko's judgment, so… I will spend the night out here for now. That way it will delay them and I can actually think of how to handle this situation without them freaking out completely…'_ Toph snorted, _'Yeah right! Like they wouldn't freak out! They would probably all go on rampages and try to kill Zuko.'_ Toph smiled, "nah…" she muttered and curled up against the rock, trying her best not to let her feet scrape against the hard rocks that would rip and tear her already fragile skin.

"I wonder what Zuko's feeling right now… I wonder if he regrets ever being born into that family…" she whispered to the ground, knowing that the Earth would hold the secrets that she whispered to it. "Is he…sad that he has lost almost everyone important to him? I mean, doesn't he still have his Uncle? He's gotta be alive… but it's strange that that old man isn't with him, normally they are like paper and glue." Toph snickered, "probably the Uncle's fault."

"Great, you are doing it again Toph!" she said scolding herself for talking out loud to no one, sometimes it was necessary for one to get the thoughts from their mind by speaking aloud, that's probably why she was doing it. She thought shrugging. "Yeah…"

The darkness of the cave settled in around her, and she didn't feel a single living thing stir in the dirt below her, which came off as a rather awkward feeling, considering she was used to have living things around her and not just cold hard dirt that had no feeling or warmth. Toph shivered and rubbed her shoulders, she hadn't been alone like this in a long time, and she still didn't enjoy the feeling of being all alone in a make-shift cave.

"I wish, someone would find me," She whispered, clutching her arms and ducking her head as she tried to find a comfortable place to sleep, of course Toph loved the Earth, but being human she needed the interaction with other people, but she had never realized just how much she needed it, how much she missed it when she didn't have it. Toph sighed, and rolled her eyes, "man! Being alone can really make you think about things like that…" she muttered with annoyance.

Toph felt the ground rumble around her, and wondered just what kind of creatures lived around here. So instead of sitting there she created a different hole in the dirt and dug her way to the surface, where she poked her head out of the whole and looked around with her hands.

Only a few feet from her stood a large horse-bat. It ate the grass without noticing her presence. Toph blinked rapidly, she had never encountered such a creature before, sure she had heard about them, but they were supposed to be legends, myth told by the old people in the Earth kingdom. Toph hesitated to stand, after all, she didn't know if it was friendly or not, but finally she crawled from her hole and sat on her knees, feeling its movements.

The horse-bat lifted its head to look at her, and then continued to graze, seeming to ignore her presence for now. Toph blew a strand of hair from her face and sat on her bottom, stretching her feet out in front of her, "yeah, I get that a lot; people tend to ignore me because they think I have some kind of problem." Toph explained to the animal, "don't ask me why I am telling you this, because I am sure you don't care and you can't understand…" the animal looked up at her and then shook it's mane before walking lazily toward her and bumping her with its muzzle.

"Hey! Watch it; I can get knocked over easy you know." Toph complained. But the animal didn't stop; instead it licked her face and then walked around behind her, where it slowly placed its body onto the ground up against her, and shifted so she could sleep on it if necessary.

"Really? I can?" Toph smiled back at the horse-bat, "thanks! I appreciate that." She leaned back against the animal, "you know…" she said after a long draw of silence, "people say you animals aren't real, and yet here I am, sitting with one… huh, strange how that happens, it really shouldn't shock me, but I am kinda in awe at how you exist even though people make up wild rumors that you all are dead." Toph chuckled, "sounds familiar." She said.

"Know why?" she asked, looking at the creature, which shook its head. "Well, because, my friend, Aang, he's an air bender, he's the avatar, but you can't tell anyone I said that ok? It could get him into a lot of trouble." She chuckled, "of course who would you tell? The animals are fine to tell, it would probably be a relief for them to know… or they may not care at all." Toph shrugged and snuggled up against the horse-bat. "They are probably getting worried about me… my friends that is." Toph said, her eyes drooping from the sleep that had been trying to kick into her cells for a long time now. Suddenly she thought of someone she hadn't thought about in a long time.

"I miss my mom." She whispered, the wind carried her whisper like a wish to the stars, Toph wondered if she would ever see her mother again, and if so, how her mother would treat her after all she had done. Would her mother be proud? Toph wiped away a few tears that dripped down her face. "Sorry," she mumbled to the horse-bat. "I'll try to get some sleep." She patted the horse-bat on the face and then closed her eyes, snuggling into the silky coat and the warmth its body provided.

After long hours in the field, Zuko stood and dusted off his pants, he walked slowly back to the camp, taking his sweet time, he didn't want to rush going to bed now that he was almost fully awake. So he took the time to look at flowers, and plants that were now sleeping, he had wasted most of his life skipping the small things, and even if this wasn't the most ideal time to do it, he was going to 'smell the flowers' as his Uncle had once put it.

Zuko stopped in front of a white flower that was in full bloom, and open despite the fact that it was nighttime. He cocked his head at the flower and took a step toward it, it had a stunning beauty to it, that reminded him much of the fire lillies back home. Zuko suddenly remembered the necklace around his neck; it had been there for so long he had almost forgotten it completely. Zuko pulled it out from under his shirt and looked at it, it was the same as when he had last put it on, except for that extra glow it only seemed to have in the moonlight. Zuko smiled slightly, and fingered the pendant; it was definitely a one of a kind item.

Then he looked up at the flower, the pure white flower that bent in the wind and rustled with the grass. Carefully Zuko reached out to it and touched one of the delicate petals. The skin of the petal was surprisingly soft and warm. He arched a brow, a bit baffled by what it was, definitely something native to the air nomads, he was sure of it.

"Well, you are pretty whatever you are." He murmured almost silently. The flower bent toward him, as if acknowledging his compliment with a bow, he smirked and leaned forward, hesitatingly. And then took a quick sniff of the flower, the smell was hard to place, soft and light, if angels wings had a smell then that would be it. The smell wasn't over-powering and one that you would get sick of fast, no instead it was addictive, like a drug. It warmed you inside and out, the smell was sweet and tangible, and strangely enough, Zuko loved it.

Zuko sat back on his feet in a squat position, "that's new." He muttered. There had been few things in his life that he had actually liked, and for one of these things to become a flower, well that was just down right odd, along with the necklace… two odd things. Zuko glanced down at the pendant and then at the flower, he sighed and stood up, and just as he was about to walk away, he saw that in front of him were a whole patch of those white unknown flowers.

"What the..." he muttered staring at them all. "What…are they?" he wondered aloud. They almost glittered like the stars, the moon light seemed to affect them in some way, and it was almost like the moon light was what it fed on instead of sunlight. Zuko blinked rapidly, that was always possible.

"Well, that's something I will have to remember, if I can get through all this chaos." He mumbled, before continuing on his way to the camp, all the while thinking of things he liked, Zuko had never given it much thought before, but now, all the things he liked were flooding his brain like a storm. Smells, people, plants, items, among them was a face he knew all to well, he sighed, he had been having the weirdest dreams and thoughts, and for some reason when he thought about how she would react he would flinch. And it would be like pouring salt onto an opened wound.

"This is really stupid." He muttered as he approached the camp site, he threw another flame of fire onto the wood, and sat down grouchily next to the camp fire, "I am sleeping now, and I will have to solve my problems tomorrow!" he muttered, before closing his eyes as if telling whatever spirit may haunt him to leave him alone, unfortunately happy dreams did not great Zuko at the gates of the dream realm. Instead nightmares attacked him like a deadly plague.

Down in the air temple, Katara sat near the edge of the cliff, looking up at the stars, thoughts about Zuko and Toph swarmed her, and she had found it very hard to sleep, her worry for Toph pricked her like needles, and her anger toward Zuko burned her like a raging fire that just couldn't be put out. Katara glowered up at the stars, she was so conflicted inside, when she had seen Zuko in the crystal caves, he had seemed like he really wanted her to be the one to save him. It was like Zuko had been crying out to her for her to save him.

Katara closed her eyes, she had tried to save him, but…he had turned against her and the group, there wasn't anything she could do about that now, he was who he was and she was who she was. There was no changing any of it. Katara opened her eyes and took a deep breath and then released it, second chance. People needed second chances because they would always makes mistakes, and they needed to be forgiven, Katara pushed those thoughts away, it was wrong, Zuko didn't need forgiveness, he needed a good life lesson! He was a spoiled prince, he had been kicked from his kingdom and he had selfishly tried to kill an innocent boy more than once and had nearly killed them once or twice.

Footsteps behind her made Katara look over her shoulder, Sokka looked down at her, he rubbed his face, "do you have…" he yawned widely and rather loudly, Katara rolled her eyes at him, "any idea what time it is?" he finally finished.

"I know it's late… I just can't sleep." Katara murmured.

Sokka arched a brow, "wanna talk about it?"

"Not really…"

"Okay! I am off to bed." Sokka said turning away. "Some brother you are." Katara muttered, feeling her eyebrow twitch with irritation. Sokka stopped and came back to her, "I was just kidding, look sis…" he paused and sat down next to her, "if there is ever anything you need to talk about, you can come to me; I mean… that's what I am here for." He smiled softly at her, and Katara smiled back, "Thanks Sokka, I'll remember that." She smirked, "ya know, there aren't many times I can say this, but you are actually pretty cool sometimes Sokka." She smiled when Sokka arched a brow in question, "'sometimes'? Gee! That makes me feel good." He said smiling sarcastically.

Katara chuckled and then frowned, "Sokka, what….what do you think happened to Toph?" she asked, looking down at her hands, "I mean, she's been gone a really long time."

"Ah, she's probably off digging holes or something." Sokka said waving a hand, "I wouldn't worry about her; she is a strong little girl, definitely not someone to underestimate."

Katara nodded, "I guess, still… it worries me."

"Yeah, I hear ya." Sokka covered his mouth as another yawn escaped him, "anyway, you should get some rest, we have a lot of stuff to get done tomorrow and I don't want you acting like a zombie on me." He patted her shoulder. Katara nodded, "Sure, I will try." She smiled weakly and Sokka stood up and went back to his sleeping bag.

Katara's blue eyes narrowed as she looked back at the stars, "Zuko…why are you back? And what was all that crap you said today." A feeling struck her heart, deep down inside, Katara wanted to believe what Zuko had said, she wanted to believe he was different and that he was here to help them, but how could she after what he had done to her. How could she set herself up for another let down, and another thing…why had his betrayal hurt her so much? It hurt as if someone she loved had betrayed her, Katara placed a hand over her heart, "Mom… what would you do?" she whispered. "I am so lost; I…don't know what to do! I want to trust him, but if I do…I know I will be hurt again." Katara clutched her necklace, the one that had been passed down from her grandmother and mother.

"I can't trust him, not until I see he is actually good." Katara's dark hair waved into her face as the wind brushed it gently, tugging it around her shoulders. Katara pushed it away and stood up; she needed sleep before tomorrow, as Sokka had said they had a lot to do and not very much time to do it. Katara walked slowly and quietly back to the camp, she smiled at Sokka's lopsided mouth that hung open with drool coming out of it, it was really amusing to see and a bit disgusting at the same time.

"Ew, Sokka, close your mouth when you sleep." Katara muttered before going to her sleeping bag, she glanced at Toph's and then sighed, slipping into her thick bag she looked up at the cave ceiling, "Toph, I hope you are safe wherever you are." She whispered. Sending her prayer off on the night wind, hoping it would be granted. Katara closed her eyes, there was only so much she could do…and only so much she couldn't. Katara gritted her teeth, no matter what, she wouldn't forgive Zuko. And with that thought, she slipped into a dark and treacherous sleep.

**To Be Continued...**

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a/n: hey, why not tell me in a comment if you liked something or if you didn't like something, did you think they were in character? Did you hear their voices when you read it? Those are some of the things I would like to know, because yeah in my own head I heard their voices, but sometimes my head is off... . so if you want to answer those questions I'd appreciate that! ^.^ if not a comment is just as good. Thank you so much for reading!!


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: **Hey, I'm surprised at the amount of alerts I got for this story O.O I feel very honored... I mean of course I've had alerts before but never so many on one story! Thank you guys! Really helps me. And thank you for the reviews! I hope you enjoy this one just as much as the other chapters!

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"**Every day is a winding road." –Every day is a winding road, Sheryl Crow**

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Zuko woke the next morning with a refresh feeling filling his sense, he hadn't felt like this for a very long time, he looked up at the blue sky he had faith that today he would have his big break and he would prove to the group that he wasn't out to get them. Zuko smirked slightly, enjoying this sensation it wasn't one he was used to, he was used to feeling regret, anger and depression.

Zuko brushed off his clothes and stomped out the fire, he looked around and then nodded satisfied before heading off to talk to the gang, as he was walking he felt the ground rumble, _'No! That stupid assassin!'_ Zuko picked up his pace and charged down to where the man stood, "Hey! STOP!" he shouted and blasted fire at him out of his hand, but it didn't faze the man, instead he pushed Zuko aside.

He heard a sickening cracking sound, but Zuko didn't bother to check and see if that had been his skull or not. He jumped back up and charged the man again, "I order you to stop attacking the avatar!" Zuko said, trying in a feeble attempt to stop the large man, "I'll pay you double just to stop!" he tried again, but the man grabbed his throat, and then threw Zuko off the edge. For a moment, that seemed like forever, he felt air around him he was falling, no doubt to his death he hadn't been able to do anything he wanted to do he had wanted to help the Avatar he had wanted to see his Uncle again was it all really going to end? Zuko's eyes flew open and he gritted his teeth, _'I. Can't. Die!' _ Zuko's arms flailed as he reached out for something that wasn't there, suddenly his hands touched something and he grabbed it and struggled to hold, his hands burned as he came to a halt.

Zuko took a deep breath and winced as his hands started to burn, _'Darn it that really hurt my hands…'_ he shook it off and started to climb the vines, "Those guys should handle him…or hopefully they will." He muttered, he groaned as his muscles ached from fighting against gravity. His arms began to hurt so badly that Zuko thought that they might actually fall off. _'I am not giving up; I've come too far to stop now.'_ Zuko's hand felt the cold marble of the temple's edge, and with a huge amount of effort he pulled himself up onto the ledge, and then stood tiredly. He pushed himself to go down the stairs and greet the group.

It was definitely awkward, but he knew he had too, "You helped save us Zuko…I can't really believe it." Aang said, his eyes watched Zuko carefully, and then he sighed, "I think you are meant to join us." Aang nodded toward Zuko as if approving his presence among them. Sokka's jaw dropped, but then he just settled for crossing his arms and looking away, Toph arched a brow from her seat on the busted fountain, and Katara glowered at him.

"Really?" Zuko smiled, over-joyed by the fact that Aang was agreeing to let him join, "Thank you so much."

"Hold on a minute, if you join us, everyone's got to agree." Aang's face became stern again and he looked at Toph, "Toph, what do you think?"

"Hey, I say let him join." She agreed smiling, "Gives me plenty of time to get him back for what he did to me."

Aang nodded, a smile returning to his face, "Sokka?"

"Whatever you say buddy, I'm fine with it." Sokka shrugged, a little grudgingly.

"Katara?" Aang looked at her last, and his face turned to an expression of worry, Aang probably knew what had happened in the cave that day, Zuko winced at the memory, Katara looked at Aang, "I'll go along with whatever you say." Katara's voice was low and dark, it was a warning.

Zuko smiled, forgetting Katara's aggression, "I won't let you down! I promise!" Zuko stepped toward them, but they all turned and left. Zuko smiled and jogged up the stairs, he ran at full speed to his old camp site and grabbed his bag, shoving his jacket in it, and he patted the badger-frog on the head and then ran back down the stairs to where the group was camping.

"Hey, Sokka, why not show Zuko to his room?" Aang said, waving at Zuko for him to follow Sokka.

"Uh, sure okay." Sokka said nervously, "Come on." He walked toward the bedroom and opened the door, "This is your room…" Zuko walked into it and looked around, "Make yourself at home, Dinner soon." Sokka smiled, Zuko glanced over his shoulder and smiled understandingly, Sokka closed the door and walked back over to Aang, "That was awkward."

"Why?" Aang asked arching a brow. Sokka snorted, "really?"

Aang shrugged, "The prince attacked us every time we turned around! Come on! Now that he is good, it's just a bit weird." Sokka crossed his arms, and arched a brow in question at Aang, who rubbed the back of his head, "Ah, yeah, I guess it's a bit strange, but don't worry, I bet that soon Zuko will be just like us!"

"I guess so." Sokka said doubtfully, and walked off to find Katara.

Aang glanced up and saw Katara leaving Zuko's room with a scowl on her face, "Hey Katara, what were you doing?" he asked walking up to her. Katara looked at him and smiled, "Oh, nothing, it's nothing." She shrugged, and continued past him. Aang arched a brow, "Now, that was weird." He said..

Zuko stared down at his hands, "Of course she's mad at you!" he muttered, "why wouldn't she be? She really has no reason to trust you, but…" he glanced at one of the walls, "did she have to threaten me?! It's not like I am still bad!" Zuko flopped backward and conked his head on the wall, "ouch!" he groaned curling into a ball and holding his head. Zuko sighed and uncurled, _'I hope I can show her that…I can help, and that I will help.'_ He flattened out on his bed and pushed his face into his pillow.

"Ugh." He yanked his head from the pillow, it smelled like dust and mildew, not the most pleasant scent in the world. But he was going to have to live with it, this wasn't a palace after all, the only quirk he had actually liked about the palace were the pillows, the fluffiest, softest pillows he had ever slept on. Zuko snorted, "Who cares." He muttered flopping his head back into the pillow.

"Who cares what?" Toph's voice made Zuko yank his head up again, that was beginning to hurt. "Toph," He sat up and looked at her, "what's up?"

"Dinners ready, so I came to get you…"

"Didn't you need some help to walk around?" Zuko questioned.

"What makes you think I can't walk on my own huh?" Toph asked crossing her arms. Zuko arched a brow, "well…"

"Okay I admit it, Sokka helped me over here." Toph said shrugging, "anyway, let's go." She turned around and waited for him. Zuko walked over to her, "need help?" he said. "Yes please."

Zuko sighed and scooped the little girl up, she was really light despite the fact that she was an earth bender; he didn't mention this though and stayed silent all the way to the dinner fire. The whole dinner was very awkward, Zuko didn't speak, and when Katara sloshed his soup into a bowl he thanked her in a whisper, she nodded and continued on.

Sokka glanced around the circle the others were just as silent no one seemed to want to speak, after they had told Haru and the others that Zuko had joined them they had become silent and wouldn't speak. Sokka sighed, _'This stinks.'_ He thought. Zuko sipped his soup; Katara had not given him a spoon, so he simply drank it. The soup was warm and tasted like it had to many vegetables but Zuko didn't complain it was actually better than what he _had_ been eating. Zuko's golden eyes scanned the small group, no one would look at him, when he did meet Aang's gaze, Aang did his best to smile Zuko wondered if Aang was regretting his decision of letting him into the group. Zuko sighed and finished off his soup, "Thank you for the meal," he stood and bowed, "I am going to bed now, excuse me." He turned and left, not waiting for anyone to say anything, he knew they wouldn't anyway.

Toph looked up at the group they seemed to be relieved that he was gone, she narrowed her blind eyes, "why didn't anyone talk?" she asked, keeping her anger in check. "Well…I don't trust him just yet." Haru said, not willing to look at Toph, Toph snorted, "How rude could you all get? Zuko's probably having a hard enough time as it is, do you all have to make it worse?" she arched a brow at them all.

"You can't really expect us to just accept him just like that." The Duke said, "After all, he is or…was the prince of the fire nation."

"Yeah, but he came here to help us! And he is really trying hard, you all just aren't giving him time to be comfortable, and how is he ever supposed to feel comfortable with all of you keeping silent and not speaking to him!" Toph almost shouted as she glared at the group, "I'm surprised most of all by you Aang." She pointed her spoon at him, Aang jolted, "what?"

"Yes, you, you didn't even talk to him! Even though you were the one who invited him to join us!" Toph whipped her hand back nearly hitting Sokka in the face. "Woah, careful Toph!" Sokka complained. "Look, it's just a bit weird, we'll all settle down soon, so…calm down Toph." Sokka said, trying to reason with her. Toph glared at Sokka, "whatever." She put her dishes down and walked away from the group.

"You know….she's right." Sokka muttered looking up at the group, "we didn't even try to make him feel welcome…"

"Come on Sokka! It was really tense! How were we supposed to react?" Haru asked staring at Sokka with a 'duh' expression. Sokka shrugged, "I know, I know, but…maybe we can try a little harder tomorrow huh?"

"Good idea Sokka." Aang said smiling, "tomorrow we really need to try and make Zuko feel like he is one of us; I don't want it to be like this every night or every meal for that matter."

Everyone nodded except Katara and broke away to go to bed, Katara sat in the same position a little longer once everyone was gone, and then began to pick up all the dishes, glaring the whole time. "Katara?"

Katara looked up at Aang, "Are you o.k.?" Aang asked, bending in front of her. "I know it's hard to deal with, but…please try." Aang said shrugging. Katara forced a smile, "don't worry." She whispered.

"Okay." Aang smiled and stood, and walked toward his room. Katara watched him go and then threw the dishes into the water she had drawn earlier from the fountain. "Deal with it… Don't worry Aang, I already have." She muttered.

Zuko stared at the ceiling, "Well, dinner was a complete disaster!" he said putting an arm over his eyes, "I know…it must be really weird for them." Zuko muttered, he sat up and looked out his window, "Uncle…what do I do?" he bent down in front of the window and looked up at the glowing stars, "you would know what to do." He touched his necklace and then pulled it over his head, he looked down at the fire-flower design, "maybe it'll be better tomorrow." He whispered, as he traced the flower.

A knock on the door made him jolt to his feet and spin around, Toph stood in the doorway she closed the door and walked over to the bed, "Sorry about dinner." She said, looking down at the floor, Zuko sighed, "It's not your fault." He also looked down at the floor feeling sorrow well up inside him. "You know… They just think it's odd, you'll have to understand that they aren't really used to you yet, I mean…you just joined today." Toph shrugged, "so, don't worry, I'm sure they will warm up to you soon."

Zuko looked up at the earth bender, it was strange, she was so much younger than him and yet she could comfort him like his Uncle had. Zuko sat down next to her, "I don't know, even if they never do, I can't really blame them…it is my fault anyway." He muttered. Toph smirked, "they didn't like me at first either of course that was my fault too."

"Really?" Zuko looked up at her, a little surprised, "but, it doesn't even look like they ever hated you."

"Woah, hated is a strong word. Sure it doesn't now, but if you had seen us back then, you would understand, I was really rough on them, especially on Aang." Toph shrugged, "We had a lot of fights, but…that's was made us close, we bonded through our differences, and learned to dance around them." Toph smiled, "it'll be the same with you."

"…How long did it take for them to accept you?" Zuko asked.

"Hmm, a month or two…? I don't remember exactly, don't worry, even if they don't accept you, I do." Toph patted his arm.

"You sound… a lot like my Uncle." Zuko admitted.

"Well, I have met the old man before," Toph smirked, Zuko's eyes opened wide, "You have?"

"Yep!" Toph chuckled, "anyway, I'm going to bed…But Zuko, don't give up on them yet, they will come around." Toph stood up and wobbled, Zuko reached out to catch her but she stopped him, "Relax, I'm fine." Toph nodded and left the room. Zuko walked back over to the window and leaned against the wall, "Maybe she's right…They just need to warm up to the idea of me being in their gang and they will be fine." Zuko smiled, "I'll really have to thank her later." Zuko sighed and closed his eyes, letting the gentle night breeze blow his hair. Zuko turned away from the window, he slipped the necklace back on and left his room he walked to the edge of the temple, and stared off at the opposite side of the ravine. The moon's light beat down on him, sending his shadow sprawling across the stone floor.

"What are you doing up?" Katara's irritated voice made Zuko shudder slightly, he turned to look at her, her blue eyes glared at him from under her dark hair. Zuko turned away from her, "just…looking at the moon." He whispered. Katara snorted, "Yeah, that's believable."

Zuko didn't respond he knew that he couldn't say anything right now that would convince her, "You better not be up to anything, because I swear if you are…well you better not be." Katara spun on one heel and marched toward her room, Zuko sighed, "Sorry…" he whispered, knowing she wouldn't hear him. Katara paused halfway to her room and looked over her shoulder, _'…did…I just hear him apologize?'_ She arched a brow, her expression softening, _'No! It was just the wind…keep walking Katara.'_ She continued forward, pushing open her bedroom door, and then slamming it shut.

"What's wrong with him?! Why all of the sudden does he want to be part of our group?! This is probably just a scheme he has so he can get close to Aang and take him away!" Katara fumed as she paced her room, "Argh! I can't stand him!" Katara threw her hands up in frustration, "I can't believe this! We can't trust him! No matter what he did today!" Katara kicked her bed and then winced, "ouch." She muttered, "I…can't trust him." She sat down on the bed and looked at the floor; she felt rage and sorrow mix inside of her, battling for the lead. She didn't really know how she felt, everything was mixed up and jumbled, nothing was right. Katara put her head into her hands and sighed, "Why do I feel this way?" she whispered, "How_ can_ I feel this way?" Katara looked up at the walls, "I…don't know what to do Mom, should I trust Zuko? And then what about Aang? If I trust Zuko, will… Zuko betray us?"

Katara glowered at her hand, "Stop it Katara! You've already made your mind up about this!"

"Katara?" Sokka's voice made Katara look up, "Sokka, I didn't hear you come in." she said sitting up. Sokka shrugged, "well, you seemed to be lost in thought." He smiled and then frowned, "are you okay?"

"No, no I'm not." Katara said, as Sokka walked over to her and sat down next to her, there were very few times when Sokka actually tried to be her older brother, she supposed this was one of those times. Sokka put and arm around Katara's shoulders, "It's hard huh?"

"Very." Katara muttered. Sokka nodded, "we just have to try, that's all we can do, and…I don't expect you to accept him right away." He sighed, "in fact I'd be surprised if you accepted Zuko at all…"

Katara narrowed her eyes, "darn right," she growled. Sokka sighed, "anyway, don't think about it to much Katara, try to get some sleep huh?" Sokka smiled reassuringly and then stood up.

"Sokka…"

"Yeah?"

"What would…Mom do?" Katara asked, not looking up at her brother, Sokka blinked, "I…honestly don't know, but personally, if she were still alive…maybe she would…forgive him." Sokka shrugged.

"Sokka, you miss Mom too right?" This time Katara looked up at Sokka, who turned away from her, "Of course I do." He whispered, "Goodnight Katara." He left the room and closed the door. "Goodnight." Katara whispered.

Zuko had been standing at the edge of the temple for a long time; he didn't even notice Aang until he looked to his right, Zuko jolted, "Aang…" he said startled. "How long have you been there?"

"Oh, a while," Aang said glancing at Zuko, "Look, Zuko…I really want you to know that…even though we invited you into our group, I am still a bit nervous about you being here. I mean, I am always going to expect you to be trying to capture me, so…if I jump a little, that is probably why…ok?" Aang said looking up at Zuko, "I want to be honest with you, please don't be offended." Aang said wincing a bit, afraid Zuko might lash out at him, but he didn't. Aang sighed with relief, "but, I know that fear will go away, and I hope it goes away soon, I really want to be your friend Zuko."

Zuko nodded, "that's really…nice of you, but I think I am going to have a hard time fitting in here."

"Everyone has trouble fitting in at first; we just have to learn to move on." Aang shrugged, "even I had trouble, Sokka didn't like me at first!" he grinned as if that was a good thing, making Zuko's sharp eyebrow shoot up, "It's true, Sokka thought I was a fire nation scout or something." Aang chuckled, "pretty funny huh?"

"Yeah, real hilarious," Zuko rolled his eyes, his voice hinting at his sarcasm, "Considering you don't look anything like someone from the Fire nation." He pointed at Aang and then dropped his finger. Aang nodded, "Yeah! What's with that huh? I don't even look like a Fire Nation scout!"

Zuko sighed, "I know what you are trying to do, and I appreciate it, but…I think it's just going to take some time before I get adjusted to being around you guys, and vice versa, so…why don't you go to bed huh? You are going to need your sleep."

Aang blinked rapidly and then looked away frowning, "uh, ok, see you tomorrow Zuko." The young air-bender turned and left Zuko alone, it was odd, to be around the people he had once been trying to capture and or kill, it was only to be expected that it turned out this way, Zuko was surprised that no one had chucked soup at him or something during dinner, and that no one had said anything rude or obnoxious. Of course, they weren't all like some people he knew. Zuko sighed and sat down on the ledge, sure this was dangerous, but he didn't really care about that right now, he had too much other stuff to worry about.

Zuko looked down at his necklace, "I guess it's kinda unfair…but what would I do if someone who had been chasing me all around the world suddenly wanted to join my group, and was claiming to be good? Yeah, I would probably act the same way they are, so I can't really blame them…that's like if Azula ever became good…" Zuko paused thinking about that for a minute, "yeah right, that would never happen." He said, snorting. "You know, I'm really glad that I bought you." Zuko picked up the necklace off his shirt, "even if Mai didn't like you."

Zuko froze in place, "…oh man, I am really stupid…talking to this necklace?! Like it's some kind of human being! Man…I need sleep." Zuko stood up and went to his corridors, he flopped onto his bed and stared up at the ceiling, "this bed is hard…" he muttered, before flipping over and looking at the wall, "this pillow's lumpy." He complained, and then rolled onto his stomach, "my back is breaking!"

Zuko shot up while throwing his arms into the air, "Arg! There is no good position I can sleep in on this stupid stone bed!" Zuko looked down at his bed, "maybe I can make it softer if I put my sleeping bag on it…" he nodded, "Yeah that's a good idea." Quickly he grabbed his bag, pulling it up onto the bed and yanked out the thick sleeping bag. "Ah, Thank you Uncle for buying this for me…" he said standing up and kicking his bag off the bed. Zuko unbuttoned the sleeping bag and threw it out so that it covered the whole bed like a heavy blanket. "Perfect." He smiled and sat down, testing it, then he rolled onto his back and stared up at the ceiling once more, with his arms behind his head. "I owe you a lot Uncle… I'm really happy that you were with me for so long, otherwise I might not have made it to where I am now." Zuko closed his eyes, and sank into sleep.

When Zuko woke the next morning it was to the sound of someone knocking on his door, he blinked rapidly and sleepy-eyed, "hn?" suddenly the door flew open, and Sokka stood smiling in the doorway holding a wooden tray, "HEEY! Morning sleepy-head! I brought you breakfast!" Sokka said enthusiastically, Zuko looked up at Sokka with a bewildered expression. "What?" he asked, not comprehending what Sokka had just said, or if what Sokka had just said was a figment of his imagination.

"I brought you breakfast!" Sokka repeated, still beaming like an idiot, "So sit up!"

Zuko sat up slowly while rubbing his eyes, "Sokka…" before he could finish Sokka placed the tray on his legs and then settled on his knees in front of Zuko. Zuko looked down at the food and then back at Sokka, "Um…thanks…? I guess…." He muttered, picking up the fork for the food. Zuko lifted one of the pieces of eggs to his mouth and then he remembered Sokka, he was kinda hard to miss since he was sitting right in front of him.

"Uh, Sokka, you can leave now." Zuko said, trying not to sound rude, but feeling a little irritated at the same time. Sokka blinked, "Oh! Oh yeah! Well, enjoy!" Sokka backed out of the room and the closed the door.

Zuko arched an eyebrow and then shook his head, "that was weird." He said, before eating his breakfast, it was really good; he would have to thank whoever made it. With a slightly satisfied sigh Zuko stood and carried the tray with the dishes on it out of his room, he spotted the group sitting around the same camp fire they had been at last night and walked over. Sokka jumped up and took Zuko's tray; "I'll take it!" he said merrily and threw the dishes carelessly into the cleaning pot.

"Uh, Hey good morning Zuko!" Aang greeted with a wave, "how was the food?"

"Uhh, good…" Zuko shrugged, not sure what else to say. "Really?!" Sokka grinned, "I made it myself!"

"R-really?" Zuko said, his mouth going into a crinkled line. "Thanks Sokka…"

"Ooh! It was no big deal!" Sokka said waving a hand, blowing off the compliment, but obviously enjoying Zuko's thanks.

"Zuko, would you like to sit here?" The Duke said waving his hand to the empty space next to him. Zuko glanced at The Duke, "oh… sure." Zuko sat down carefully, "Thanks." _'Well, this is really weird…'_ he thought, he watched the group, who all seemed to be trying their best to be nice. "Hey, want to explore the temples with us later?" Haru offered, shrugging. Zuko glanced at Aang and then at Haru, "Uh, no…no thanks."

"Okay, but they are a lot of fun!" Haru said smiling.

"Thanks, but maybe later." Zuko declined.

Toph snorted, "How about you practice with me huh Zuko?" she said looking up from her bowl. Zuko sighed, "no thanks, I'm…I was thinking of actually-"

"Oh, well, if you don't want to that's okay; I'll just get Aang to do it." Toph grinned wildly, and Aang smiled nervously. Sokka looked over at Zuko, "So, you wanna hang with me then?"

Zuko released a breath, "Sure, why not." He said shrugging, he hoped Sokka would be able to explain to him why everyone was doing this, he could tell they were all really straining, except Katara; she seemed content to ignore him and clean up the dishes. Zuko sighed and looked down, that was slightly depressing. "Great! We have lots of great things to do today! So why don't you come with me now!" Sokka said, before jumping up and walking past Zuko.

Zuko nodded and stood up, following Sokka, he glanced over his shoulder at Katara, and she looked up at him once and then turned her glaring gaze back to the dishes. _'I'm really sorry…'_ he thought, turning his attention back to Sokka who was blabbing something about Oppa, but Zuko couldn't concentrate on anything, so when he tried to give Oppa hay it just fell all over the place.

"Hm, maybe you can feed Momo." Sokka said shrugging. That one failed too, Zuko couldn't even get Momo to consider the food instead Momo seemed content to fly away from Zuko and as high as possible.

"This is really hopeless." Zuko muttered.

"Not yet! I may have one more job for you!" Sokka said; obviously not ready to give up on Zuko yet.

Sokka lead Zuko to a different part of the temples, and sat down next to a bunch of rocks, "What's this?" Zuko asked sitting down next to Sokka. "Oh, these are wet stones so we can sharpen our weapons! I took the liberty of bringing out your weapon already! So here you go." Sokka handed Zuko his sword and a wet stone before pulling out his boomerang and he began to sharpen it.

"Well…my sword's already sharp, but I guess a little tuning won't hurt it." Zuko said shrugging. For a long while Zuko and Sokka were silent, but then Zuko broke the silence, "Hey, Sokka…"

"Yeah?" Sokka replied without looking up.

"…Why is everyone being so nice to me?" Zuko asked.

"Huh?" Sokka looked up, "What you don't like being treated nicely?"

"Uh, well, that's not it actually, it's just…last night everyone was upset at me and today they are all being way to nice…what's that about?"

"They just want you to feel accepted." Sokka said shrugging, he continued to sharpen his boomerang while Zuko thought about that, _'But I…really don't feel accepted, I feel like I am being treated special for no reason.'_ Zuko looked down at his sword, "Sokka, can you keep a secret?"

"Sure I can." Sokka said smiling.

"Well, actually being treated the way I am being treated…is actually really annoying." Zuko admitted without looking up, he didn't really want to see Sokka's expression.

_**To Be Continued...**_

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a/n: Can anyone guess who's idea it was to make Zuko feel welcome? Anyone? Anyone?


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:** Hey guys! Thanks for sticking around through the chapters, I hope you've enjoyed it. Not much action I know, but when I was writing this I was rushing and things just kinda got slapped together. I'll try to make it more interesting if I think about it but I really do enjoy it the way it is and I hope you all do too!

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"**Now I am unbreakable, it's unmistakable.**

**No one can touch me, nothing can stop me."-Unbreakable, Fireflight.**

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Zuko sat down exhaustedly on his bed, he groaned thinking about the events of that day, it was all started to weigh him down. "Hey, you seem upset." Toph said stepping in. Zuko looked up at her, "More like frustrated, no one will leave me alone! It's like I can't do anything for myself!" Zuko threw his arms up. Toph crossed her arms and leaned against the door-frame, "you've been here three days and they are still treating you like that?" Toph asked inquiringly.

"Yes! And it's driving me nuts!" Zuko threw himself backwards on the bed, "I can't even talk to Aang without someone getting in my way! I wanted to talk to him about the training we were going to do, but I can't get a second alone with him." Zuko said.

"Well, the solution is simple, tell them to stop." Toph shrugged.

"I would love to, but I really don't want to be mean to them." Zuko groaned, "Man, how am I supposed to talk to them without them thinking I am offended?"

"But aren't you?"

"Yes! A little…but…how do I tell them that without making them think I am evil?!"

"Ha! I hardly think that wanting to do things for yourself is "evil"" Toph quote-un-quoted with her fingers.

"Well, whenever I talk to them, I feel like I am going to screw it up! Like I did when I first asked to join your group," Zuko rolled onto his side so he could see Toph, she sighed, "Look, it's okay to be a little rough, but they won't be mad if you tell them to stop, in fact they might actually be relieved." Toph shrugged, "I suggest you just tell them all to stop and then talk to Aang about the training."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Zuko sat up, "I'll tell them at lunch, thanks Toph."

"Not a problem." Toph smirked and left the room.

Zuko sat in the little circle at lunchtime and then sighed, "look, everyone, I really appreciate everything you've been trying to do for me to make me feel welcome…but…" someone in the group grunted with annoyance which made Zuko hesitated, "But, I really don't want you all to do this anymore, so…just go about being yourselves okay?"

Everyone around the circle stared at him for a moment and then sighed, "Wow, that's good to hear, I was starting to get tired." Haru said bluntly. Sokka sighed, "There goes my brilliant plan."

"That was your idea?" The Duke said arching a brow, "I thought it was Aang's."

"No, Aang can't come up with anything that good…" Sokka said waving his hand dismissively.

"Well, that's almost true." Aang muttered slightly glaring at Sokka.

"Whoever's idea it was, I'm just glad it's over." Zuko said, standing and walking over to Aang, "Aang, you and me, we have to talk about your training."

Aang nodded, "Let's go." He stood up and followed Zuko away from the campfire. Katara glared as they left, _'Is it really okay to let them go off alone, what if Zuko tries something…maybe I should follow them.'_ Katara stood up and followed the two boys, ignoring the weird looks she got from the others. She turned a corner, and saw them standing together near a smaller fountain; she narrowed her eyes and snuck closer, hiding behind a pillar to listen in on their conversations.

"…Aang, you have to take this seriously, you can't goof off with this. I know you have hurt someone, but you can overcome that and I will help you." Zuko said, looking down at Aang.

"…I know I'm just a little nervous…"

"Don't worry; when I am done training you, you won't be nervous in the slightest." Zuko said reassuring Aang.

Katara sighed and leaned against the pillar, _'Even if I am being overly cautious, I can't help but think that something bad is going to happen…'_ Katara glared at the temple wall, and then just as she decided to leave, Aang spotted her, "Hey Katara, what are you doing over there?"

"Uh…I dropped something." Katara said, stumbling for a lie, Aang blinked rapidly and then smiled, "oh, did you find it?"

"Yep."

"Okay, well, I am going to bed, see you in the morning." Aang waved to Katara and walked off, leaving Katara and Zuko. Zuko stood in his spot; he didn't know what to do, so instead of trying to talk to her, he simply walked around her. "Listen to me," Katara's aggressive voice made him turn around and look at her. "I am going to monitor your training with Aang, and if I see you slip up once…" Katara glared, "you know what will happen." She brushed past him, and disappeared around the corner. Zuko watched her and then sighed, _'I can't blame her for being suspicious of me, but I can blame her for not giving me another chance.'_ Zuko kicked a loose pebble, he considered going back to his room, and decided he didn't really want to face anyone right now, so instead he sat down near the fountain and thought about what Katara had just said.

_'Uncle, I've messed up so badly, I don't know if I can ever be forgiven by her…'_ Zuko put his head in his hands, and for some reason the very thought of her not forgiving him hurt him more than knowing that the others may not forgive him. _'…I really need some help right now Uncle. I will have to find a way to work around her, otherwise it's going to drive me crazy, and she'll be watching my every move. I won't be able to go to the bathroom without her following me I bet…'_

Zuko lifted his head and sighed, "well, it's all or nothing, and I am not willing to turn around from all of this, I'll just have to prove to Katara that I am not out to get Aang or her for that matter." He stood up, and made his way quietly toward his room, the fire from the camp had gone out hours ago, and everyone else was already asleep. Zuko sighed, relieved and went into his room, closing the door, he took off his shoes and slipped into bed, he pulled of the necklace he had forgotten he had been wearing for three days and placed it gently on the floor next to his bed, then closed his eyes.

"Hey Sifu-hotman, are you awake in there?" Aang called from the other side of the door, Zuko heard the voice and sat up slowly, "What?" he asked boggled by what Aang had just said.

"Are you awake?" Aang called again.

"Now I am," Zuko muttered, throwing the blanket and sheet away from him, he slid on his shoes and picked up the necklace, putting it delicately in the box and leaving the box on the bed. He opened his bedroom door; "Ready?" he asked arching a brow. Aang nodded, "what did you call me anyway?" Zuko said as they walked to the designated training spot.

"Huh?" Aang responded, not understanding the question, or at least pretending not too. "I said; what did you call me, before…the first time." Zuko waved his hands around animatedly as he tried to get his words out. Aang blinked rapidly and then opened his mouth, "Oh! I called you; Sifu-hotman." Aang grinned, "pretty clever huh?"

"More like annoying don't do it anymore." Zuko ordered, his eyes narrowing.

Aang nodded, "Okay Sifu-hotman."

"I said stop," Zuko muttered, his eyebrow twitching. "Alright, let's go through some basic moves first, and then we can deal with fire."

Zuko's training with Aang, was indeed monitored by Katara, she stood not to far from them and watched every move that they made, Katara's eyes mostly watched Zuko, making sure he wouldn't try anything that would hurt Aang, she knew that some of this was slightly ridiculous, but she, being one of the most mature in the group, had a right to be concerned for the Avatar. Even though she had other duties, Katara continually checked up on the former Fire prince and the Avatar, but she couldn't find a single thing that Zuko might be doing that would hurt Aang, she was a little relieved, she would prefer it to remain like that. But she couldn't let her guard down just yet.

That night during dinner, Katara watched Zuko, the next morning she watched Zuko and finally she went into his room, she wasn't able to control her curiosity and hostility toward the prince, so for one last test she decided to check his belongings, perhaps there would be something in them. Katara looked around carefully, and then slipped quietly into Zuko's room; at first she didn't see anything that really seemed dangerous. But she wasn't done yet, carelessly Katara threw his sheets and blankets back, revealing the sleeping back, which she searched thoroughly, and the rock bed, she checked under it as well.

Just as Katara thought she was done, her foot kicked Zuko's bag, she blinked and looked down of course she hadn't searched his bag yet. So she pulled it up into the bed and sat down on the edge of the bed, then she opened the drawstring bag and looked inside, she pulled out a set of spare clothes, a book and socks. Katara arched a brow, put the clothes back and scanned through the book, nothing of interest, once she had replaced the bag in its original spot and fixed the bed, she looked down once more and saw a small box. "Hmm…what's this?" she whispered, bending over and picking it up. She couldn't believe what she saw, the box was magnificent, it had been carved with such care, and the designs were stunning to look at.

"What is Zuko doing with this; I didn't take him for the type who kept things like this…" Katara muttered, flipping it around in her hands, she traced the designs delicately, and for a moment wondered if it had once belonged to his Mother, and if that were the case she should probably put it down, but instead she decided it was to new looking to be his mothers, and fingered the latch. "Oh, it won't hurt to look inside it."

Katara's slim fingers flipped the latch and slowly she opened the box, there was nothing inside, it obviously belonged to a necklace, but it wasn't there. Katara blinked in a bit of shock, she hadn't been expecting it to be empty. "Well, fine… at least it's not dangerous." She muttered, a little upset, and put the box back on the floor. Katara stood, brushed herself off and left the room. Halfway back to the lunch area, Katara thought of something, what if that box hadn't been originally on the floor, what if it had been on the bed, Zuko would know she had rummaged through his things, not that she cared, but it would cause an unnecessary fight that would delay Aang's training, more than likely.

Quickly, as if her life depended on it, Katara ran back to Zuko's room where she hurried to put the box on the bed, and then she left with a sighed, _'Wait! What if it was under the sheets?'_ Katara threw the door open and grabbed the box, which she put quickly under the blanket and then left again. _'Okay, walk away Katara…'_ she slowly made her way back to the lunch area, but because she couldn't help but wonder, when Zuko went to his room, she followed him and watched him through a crack in the door, he didn't seem to notice anything. _'Good,'_ she thought.

"Hmm, I don't remember putting you under the sheets…" Zuko said, picking up the box, Katara gasped and stood frozen outside the door, watching him, "or maybe I did…whatever, I don't care." Zuko said, putting the box down and then heading toward the door, Katara lept away from the door and walked to the pot. "Lunch is ready!"

The morning sun warmed Katara's face as she woke up; today was the day Zuko and Aang were leaving to find out about firebending. Katara sighed and stood up, she walked out of her bedroom and went down to the fountain, cupping a handful of water Katara splashed her face with it and then wiped it all off with her waterbending.

"Morning…" Zuko's voice echoed against the stone columns. Katara looked over her shoulder at him and narrowed her eyes, "Hmm." She straightened up, and looked down at her reflection, Zuko's face suddenly appeared next to hers in the water, he reached out to the water, his shoulder brushing Katara's arm, she jolted and stepped aside, "watch it." She almost growled, resisting the urge to snap at him.

"Sorry…" Zuko said, sounding baffled as to what he had just done, he splashed his face and straightened, wiping his face with his sleeve. Katara wrinkled her nose, "use this." She held out a towel with agitation. Zuko looked at her over his arm, his golden eye wide, he carefully pulled down his arm and turned to look at her, then reached out his pale hand gripped the towel, "Thanks."

"Yeah…" Katara muttered crossing her arms. Zuko hesitated and then wiped his face off with the towel, padding his skin.

"What's the difference?" she asked arching a brow, her voice still had an aggressive undertone.

"Huh?" Zuko said, looking at her in a shock, not sure what she meant, and a bit surprised that she was actually talking to him. "Wiping your face or padding it, what's the difference?" Katara's impatience showed in her body language, so Zuko quickly spoke. "Oh, well, supposedly wiping only rubs in more dirt, where as padding dry takes away more…that's just what I heard." Zuko said shrugging, "stupid I know." He muttered. Katara blinked, her eyes un-narrowing, "So, where do I put this?" Zuko asked, holding up the towel.

"Uh…Oh, here I'll take it," Katara held out her hand for the towel, which Zuko placed into her hand, his finger tips brushed her palm, and unwillingly Katara shivered. "Take care of Aang." Katara said briskly before walking away, her usual stiffness returning, Zuko sighed and watched her go, "For a second there…" he whispered. "I thought we had something, must…have been wrong."

Katara hid behind a pillar and leaned against the cool stone, _'What…was that anyway? That feeling I had?'_ she peered around the pillar at Zuko, Aang stood with him now, obviously he had joined him. Katara pulled her head back and closed her eyes; taking a deep breath, _'Let it go Katara, it wasn't anything…'_ she pushed off the pillar, and turned.

"What are you doing?"

"Eeek!" Katara shrieked, she spun and looked at Toph whose eyebrows were on her forehead. "What the heck…"

"Shh!" Katara grabbed Toph and covered her mouth, "Mmm!!" Toph complained through Katara's hand. "Did you hear that?" Aang asked looking at Zuko.

"Yeah…it sounded like Katara." Zuko said turning around and looking in the direction the shriek had come from, Aang and Zuko looked at each other and then ran in the direction the sound had come from. "Katara?" Aang called, his voice edged with worry.

"I'm fine!" Katara said, stepping around the pillar, "Toph just scared me." She shrugged, still holding Toph. "Um…why are you covering Toph's mouth?" Aang asked arching a brow.

"Oh…" Katara let Toph go, "sorry Toph…" Katara's blue eyes looked up at Zuko and then she turned away, "have a safe trip," she said stubbornly and continued on her way. Toph blinked rapidly, "Well that was weird…" they all nodded in agreement, "I'll see you boys later." Toph said, slugging Aang in the shoulder.

"Ouch! Yeeeah thanks Toph." Aang smiled with a wince and turned away, Zuko smothered a smirk and followed Aang to Oppa.

Toph waved them off and then went after Katara, "this ought to be good." She said grinning evilly. Katara stood next to the washing pot; she was throwing the dirty towels into the pot, and fiddling around. "So…what exactly were you doing?" Toph asked.

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Katara said, looking at Toph over her shoulder quizzically.

"Don't try that on me," Toph said crossing her arms, "you know what I mean…what were you doing hiding behind that pillar, watching Aang and Zuko?"

"Nothing, I just…stopped there." Katara shrugged her annoyance level rising. "Oh yeah?" Toph arched a dark brow, "Tch, you are really unbelievable." Toph spun around and started to walk away.

"What does that mean?!" Katara hissed, stopping Toph in her tracks, Toph looked at her over her small shoulder, "come on, you really don't know?" she said snorting, "You of all people should know…After all you aren't even giving Zuko a chance."

Katara glared at Toph, "that's none of your business! I can do whatever I want, besides when did you ever care? Shouldn't you be doing something goofy with Sokka?" she blurted her anger getting the better of her.

Toph glared at the ground, "you really are snoopy you know that, maybe you should consider staying out of peoples personal things, I saw you go into Zuko's room." Toph sighed, "You need to relax some Katara."

"What you suddenly like Zuko?" Katara asked crossing her arms.

"I don't dislike him." Toph muttered, "You know Katara, would it really be that bad to give him another chance?"

"It might be!" Katara snarled, obviously not going to budge from the grudge she had against Zuko, Toph sighed, "whatever…" she walked away from the angry waterbender.

"Uh! What does she know? She wasn't with us when he did all those things! I can't believe she even wanted me to give him a second chance! How ludicrous is that?" Katara flung a wet towel down on the stone, bending the water out of it, and throwing the water over the edge of the air temple. Deep inside, Katara knew that Toph was right, but she wasn't willing to admit it.

_'There's something much deeper here than Toph can imagine…'_ Katara thought bitterly, the memory of this morning's encounter with Zuko made her shiver again, the feeling of his warm skin against hers. _'Ugh! How dare he touch me!'_ she stomped hard on one of the towels before bending the water off of it. _'To think I even entertained the idea of him liking me at one point! UGH!'_ Katara kicked the dirty water pot over and then started to hop, "Dang it!" She muttered, sitting down on the edge of the fountain, bending cool water onto her foot and holding it there.

"Hey…" Haru said walking toward her, "…what happened?" he asked pointing at her foot. Katara looked up at Haru, "oh, I…just kicked the pot that's all..."

"Hurt your foot huh?" Haru grinned at Katara, and she blushed embarrassed. "Yeah…" she shrugged, "Why'd you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Kick the pot…?" Haru questioned leaning forward to get a better view of her face, Katara shrugged, "no reason, I…was just thinking and I accidentally did it." She muttered making the water form into ice, to cool down her throbbing foot. Haru chuckled lightly, "I see, well it seems that whatever you were thinking about was very distracting, because normally you are very calm and focused on whatever you are doing." Haru said complimenting Katara and smiling as he did so, Katara looked up at him, blinking rapidly, "Thanks Haru, I know you are trying to make me feel better…and it helped a bit." Katara shrugged and smiled, "don't worry; I'm fine, go hang out with The Duke."

Haru patted her shoulder, "as long as you are okay." He stood up and walked away, leaving Katara to her thoughts. _'Man, I really should be more careful, why should I hurt myself over that guy…I can't think about that right now…'_ Katara knew that what she couldn't think about was the person that was constantly invading her thoughts now a days, because he was always around them. His sparkling golden eyes which burned into Katara's blue ones, making it seem like she had nothing to hide, it was as if he could see right to her soul.

Katara shivered, and brushed away those thoughts, _'Stop it Katara, you should be concentrating on the laundry and worrying about other things…'_ Katara blinked when she spotted something red among the towels, her hand slipped into the water and she pulled it out, this definitely belonged to Zuko, the red towel that he used when he was drying off from the daily training. Katara rolled her eyes and threw it back in.

Without another thought toward Zuko, she hung all the towels on the line that Aang and Sokka had set up for her, and then with expert motions she bent all the water out of them, and threw the water over the edge, "There!" Katara smirked, "perfectly dry." She took all the towels down, folded them neatly and took them around to the individual rooms. Once she got to Zuko's room, she hesitated outside the door for a long time, before finally opening the door slowly, and stepping in, leaving the door cracked open behind her. _'So Toph won't think I am sneaking around again.'_ Katara thought, carefully placing the towel down on Zuko's bed and turning away, but the same little box she had seen earlier caught her eye.

"…maybe one peek, whatever was gone, might be back." She muttered, bending down and picking up the box from the floor, and then stepping to the window, where she seated herself on the stone windowsill. Katara's fingers traced the designs, like she had last time and then hesitatingly, she opened the lid.

Katara gasped at what she saw, and nearly dropped the box, "what the…" she whispered, her dark fingers reaching out and picking up the delicate pendant that was attached to a golden chain. The pendant reminded her of the necklace that her mother had passed down to her, "I…I can't believe this…" she gripped the pendant, "is…is he mocking me?!" she put the necklace away and threw the box onto Zuko's bed, before storming out of the room and slamming the door behind, "Why would he do that?" she snarled.

"Do what?" Toph asked.

"Nothing," Katara said, walking away from Toph and storming up the stairs, making her way up to the top of the air temple, where the greenery was, and followed the river down to a pool, where she dangled her feet in the cold water, that appeared to be calm. Katara sighed and splashed her feet around loudly in the water, making ripples flood out over the rest of the small pool that collected a lot of the water from the river. She stayed at the little pool all day, and finally she slipped off her outer clothes, and tightened her white swimming clothes, before slipping into the cool water, and diving under, swimming around under the water, trying to clear her head.

The cold water numbed her senses and made her forget what she had been mad about, she swam up the river, bending the water to let her through, but then she decided she would rather try to swim up river without bending the water, so she released her hold on the water and struggled to swim up the river, forcing her limbs through the strong current that tried to force her back. But Katara dove deeper, her hands touching the rocks and pebbles below, as she pushed her way through the currents which were softer this deep under.

Finally Katara surfaced and she gasped for air, "Woah!" she grabbed onto the edge of the river bank, trying to keep from getting tugged away. She pulled herself onto the land and squeezed out her hair; she tossed her long dark hair over her shoulder and looked up at the sky, "Hm…the sun set already." She whispered. "One more swim…" she dove back into the water and let the current carry her down the river toward the fountain that dropped off into the air temple. But before she got too far she stopped herself with waterbending, and created a bubble of air that she sat down in and let the water push her down the river.

The moon glittered above her head, telling her that the night had come and that her friends were probably worrying about her. Katara sighed, "yeah, I should go back now, they'll probably think I got killed or something." She smirked, she couldn't help but get an over-whelming giddy feeling from being out this late and doing what she wanted to do, she hadn't been on her own like this for a long time, she had to admit that it was refreshing to be alone and not surrounded by people who were always bugging her for things, her stress levels were already high, she didn't need anymore trouble, like Zuko. Zuko was definitely trouble-some and she was finding it hard to deal with her anger toward him, without making others uncomfortable. But she wasn't sure how much longer she could hold it back, it might actually be good to take out all her anger and frustration on him a small bit at a time.

Katara slipped out of the river and grabbed her clothes, before walking back to the temple, putting her pants on and then her shirt. She left her hair down and let it air-dry, it was freeing to let it do so, and normally she would dry it with a towel or bend out the water. Katara smiled remembering the first time she had used her bending skills, she had frozen Sokka's feet, she had only been ten years old, and she didn't bother trying to figure out how she did it, after all everyone thought it was a fluke of some kind. Katara jumped the last three steps and strolled past the group who had made their own dinner, they all stared at her.

"Where were you?" Toph said jumping up, "you weren't here for dinner!"

"Yeah! We had to cook for ourselves." The Duke whined, "and it turned out really gross!" he made a face, sticking his tongue out as one eye shut and the other left open. Haru nodded in agreement, "it was really terrible…"

"No kidding! The rice cooked way to long." Sokka complained pointing at the pot.

Katara's eyebrows shot up at their complaints, "Well, maybe other people should learn to cook around here, then you wouldn't have to worry about eating nasty food for dinner, you all should really consider thinking about other people." She said haughtily, and then she left, leaving behind the shocked faces of the rest of the group. Katara grinned, she actually felt good about telling them off for once, _'I know it was really mean, but I couldn't help it…I'll apologize later.'_ Katara couldn't keep the grin off her face the whole next day, it was infectious, that was of course until Zuko and Aang returned, Katara frowned when she saw Zuko and sat down with the group to watch their demonstration of what they had learned.

"It's a sacred form of fire bending!" Zuko complained loudly when Sokka insulted him. Katara smirked, "oh yeah?"

Zuko looked at her, a little stunned, "What's the form called?"

Suddenly Zuko became quiet and he looked away from the group, "The…uh, dancing dragon." He muttered. Katara laughed out loud, along with the others, she couldn't help it, besides her laugh was more of a sarcastic laugh. Humorless in everyway, after all she wasn't done being mad at him. She hadn't forgotten the necklace she had found in his room.

Katara stood up and brushed off her pants, "excuse me while I go wash off the corn." She smirked and walked away from the two boys, making the group watch her leave.

"What's wrong with her?" Aang asked arching a thin brow.

"She's been really grouchy since you all left, she got all up in our faces the other day about the food, and told us maybe one of us should learn how to cook instead so we don't always have to depend on her." Toph shrugged.

"Wow…she really is upset." Aang said, "Maybe I should go talk to her." Aang started after Katara, but Sokka stuck out his arm, "I wouldn't if I were you…"

"Yeah, Sokka's right, it would probably only anger her more." Zuko said, taking a step toward Aang, "Anyway, you should go get your rest; we have a big day tomorrow." Zuko walked away from Aang, and went the way Katara had just gone, not because he was following her, but because he wanted a drink of water, and they had all decided that one of the fountains was for drinking and cooking while the other was for washing up. Zuko stepped around the corner and ducked, a huge blob of water had nearly hit him in the face.

"Woah! Be careful." He said straightening.

Katara narrowed her eyes and turned away from him, she was obviously going through her steps of waterbending with a great amount of anger involved in the moves. Zuko walked over to the fountain, he bent over it.

"Get a cup!" Katara's harsh voice made Zuko jump back; he had almost fallen into the fountain, "Wha?"

"I said get a cup, are you arrogant as well as deaf?" Katara said crossing her arms, Zuko blinked in shock at her and his eyebrows scrunched together, "I…was getting a cup, I wasn't going to stick my hand into the water just by itself that would have been unsanitary."

"Well good, at least your clean, that's the only good thing on the list of good things for you." Katara waved a hand dismissing him and turning away from him again. Zuko sighed, "You could at least treat me like I am human." He muttered, not meaning for her to hear him, but unfortunately her hearing was better than most peoples.

"Are you human? Do we really know that?" Katara said, growling through gritted teeth. Zuko looked up at her, it felt like she had just drove a dagger into his chest and his breathing came out rougher as the sharp pain spread out from his chest. "…I…guess we can never be sure…" Zuko managed to say, as he tried to hide his breathing problem from Katara. He took a deep breath and sighed, letting the pain fade, "how can anyone ever be sure that I am human…" he muttered, scooping water from the fountain with a wooden cup.

"At least you can admit you aren't human." Katara's water splashed against Zuko at full force, making him stumble away from the fountain. He held up his arms, and then looked up at her, "Oops, sorry." Katara's obvious sarcasm made Zuko roll his eyes. "I'm sure." He said, before walking away from her. "It's not the first time I've been doused by you."

"Yeah, well it shouldn't have been a surprise then." Katara said crossing her arms, she was daring him to fight back and Zuko knew it, but he wouldn't take the bait, instead he walked away from her, leaving her to fume alone.

_**To Be Continued...**_

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a/n: Isn't Katara such a brat? XD; Thanks for your support!


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N:** Heey! I know it's a little late but at least I got it up before midnight! I really hope you enjoy this chapter, it's really cute and shows a side of Katara that we rarely see and when we do we all get annoyed at her don't we? XD Enjoy! And Happy Valentine's Day!!

edit: Fixed the spelling! Thanks guys ^-^

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"**Wishing on a shooting star, **

**Dreams alone won't get you a far.**

**Can't deny your feelings anymore.**

**The world is waiting right outside your door,**

**What are you waiting for?"—Ride, John Gregory.**

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The rest of the week wasn't a pleasant one; it seemed that every time Katara got a chance she would pick on Zuko, making him feel even more unwelcome than he already did. Zuko tended to edge around her now, keeping away from her. Katara's attitude was getting out of hand, and everyone agreed on that point.

"Zuko! Why didn't you finish the dishes?" Katara hissed, storming up to him, her hands slicing through the air like blades. Zuko turned to look at her, "what? I did finish them…" he pointed toward the pot and then blinked; the pot was full of dishes. "What the heck, I just did all of those!"

"Maybe you dreamed you did them all! Now go over there and do them." Katara snarled, pointing at the over-flowing pot. Zuko ran a pale hand through his dark hair, "fine, but if those magical dishes re-appear I am not doing them." Zuko said walking around the fuming Katara, "yeah, fine!" Katara shouted after Zuko. Then she stormed away.

Sokka blinked and then looked at Aang, "I really think her anger is getting out of control…" he said, pointing a finger after his younger sister. Aang nodded, "Man, I've seen her angry, but…wow this is really extreme." Aang said his eyebrows high up on his forehead, not entirely sure how to respond to Katara's extreme behavior.

Toph kicked the ground, "she's being ridiculous! I can't believe how low she is stooping to make him do extra work to keep him occupied! What the heck is wrong with that girl? Has she gone mental?" Toph's voice was almost at shouting level; she was just expressing what everyone felt toward Katara's attitude.

"I know, I mean, sure Zuko did some bad stuff in the past, but he has been really helpful lately, and for him to put up with Katara's anger toward him is really great of him! I can't believe he hasn't flared up and gotten mad back at her…" Sokka said pointedly. Aang nodded in agreement, "should we stop her rampage?" he asked.

"Ah, no in this kind of situation, it's best to leave things alone, I mean…if Zuko want's her to stop treating him like a dish rag, he needs to stand up to her about it." Sokka said, holding his hand up in a 'stop' signal and waving it back and forth.

"Literally," Toph muttered, "she's been using him like a rag all this time, making him clean dishes, making him clean the laundry, making him clean up after Appa… and let me tell you that's not a fun job." Toph waved a hand in disgust, "especially for someone who isn't an Earthbender."

"No kidding," Sokka said.

"Hey! It's not that bad." Aang said crossing his arms, "Not for you maybe, because you've had him your whole life." Toph said, "Besides your opinion is biased, you don't get a say in it."

"Gee, thanks so much." Aang muttered, crossing his arms and looking away from Sokka and Toph. Sokka smiled, "don't take it too hard Aangy-boy."

Toph chuckled, "Aangy-boy…"

"Yeah, pretty good huh?" Sokka smirked, "I still got it…"

Aang sighed and watched Zuko clean, for as much wrong Zuko had done in the past, he was definitely making up for it by doing everything Katara demanded of him. Aang felt bad for Zuko, he knew what it was like to be yelled at by Katara, and it wasn't a fun experience, of course he didn't have the guts to yell back at her, he had always been afraid she would freeze him to the ground, and give him no way to get himself free. Aang stood up and walked over to Zuko, he watched Zuko clean the dishes in a crouched position that couldn't have been very comfortable.

"Hey, Zuko…"

"Yeah?" Zuko responded without looking up.

"I'm…sorry Katara is treating you this way, normally she's really nice!" Aang smiled, trying to reassure him. Zuko snorted, "Oh I'm sure, though I've never seen her nice. Only furious, angry or furious," Zuko said, remembering every encounter he had ever had with Katara, of course he forgot fear, the first time he met her, she had been afraid. Other than that, she had been furious, always lashing out and never telling him what he wanted to know, he had to admit to be either very brave or very stupid, had he been Azula he might have already killed her.

Zuko thanked his lucky stars that he wasn't Azula; he couldn't stand the idea of killing Katara it would be like killing a rare species of animal which was the last of its kind. Though Katara wasn't the last of her kind, but she could do a lot of things, he was fairly certain other waterbenders couldn't do.

"Oh….yeah, I forgot you were never with us when she was nice." Aang said shrugging, "you've been with us for a few weeks and I already feel like you've been with us forever. Strange huh?"

Zuko looked up at Aang, and stared at him for a long time then smiled, "yeah…strange." Zuko sighed, "Aang…what do you think I can do to make her see that I am not here to hurt you all."

"I don't think that's the problem anymore Zuko, it's probably something deeper." Aang shrugged, "so more than likely it's not you."

"You really think so?" Zuko said, looking down at the soap scum that had settled on his pale hand, he washed it off in the dirty water, and pulled out another plate, that had been wedged in-between the side of the big pot and another plate. Aang nodded, "yeah, I do…but I couldn't say what it is, you'll have to figure that out for yourself." Aang said smiling, "for now, why don't I dry the dishes for you?"

"Thanks but no thanks, I'd rather not get yelled at for having you help." Zuko said rolling his golden eyes. Aang sighed, "I guess you're right, well…I'll talk to you later…" Aang moved back over to where Sokka and Toph were sitting, they were now in a deep discussion about toes or something like that; Aang didn't stay long enough to find out. He went to find Katara, he wanted to talk to her about being a bit nicer to Zuko, he had been slaving for her for a week now, and Aang wasn't sure if that was part of their agreement or not.

"Katara?" he called lightly, when he turned the corner to the 'common area', this was where everyone normally sat around, but since Katara had come here, everyone had cleared out, not willing to risk her wrath.

"Over here Aang," Katara raised a hand so Aang could see her, and he walked over to her, and sat down next to her, "Katara…I have something to talk to you about." He said calmly, trying to approach her like she was a dangerous animal that would tear him to shreds if he made one wrong move.

"What is it?" Katara asked, not looking at him, her eyes lingered on the stars up in the sky that they could barely see. Aang sighed, "Well, this isn't easy for me to say, but, I wanted to ask you to take it easy."

Katara didn't respond, so Aang continued, "on Zuko I mean, he has been doing everything you ask him to do without arguing, and I think that you should really consider being a little nicer to him."

Katara turned her head to look at Aang, her blue eyes glittered with a coldness that Aang had never seen there before it made him shiver. "You too? Now everyone is defending him…Even Haru came to me about this." Katara said, pulling her hand out from under her chin, which had been supporting it.

Aang gulped and then shrugged, "well, everyone feels the same way, they are getting a really awkward feeling because whenever we are all together you either shout at Zuko to do something or don't speak at all…it's kinda upsetting all of our moods."

"If it's making you all so uncomfortable maybe you shouldn't have Zuko around." Katara snapped, her tongue lashing out and making Aang wince.

"Katara…that's not fair, to him or to us." Aang said, trying to defend himself from her attitude, but it was hard to cover up the tears that were starting to burn behind his eyes. Katara jolted to her feet, "Goodnight Aang." She said, she didn't even try to talk to him about the issue, instead she went to her room, _'What does Aang know…he doesn't know anything about what I have against Zuko, I could write a novel about how many things I have against Zuko! Arg, I don't care if they are uncomfortable, I've been uncomfortable the whole time Zuko's been with us! But they didn't seem to care about that at all! Now Zuko's suddenly feeling unwelcome and they are all concerned? What kind of friends do I have anyway?'_ Katara slammed her door shut and sat down on her bed, tears began to well up and they slowly spilled over, slinking down her tan skin, making streaks.

_'What do any of them know? They don't know what I am going through, or how much I am suffering because of that guy…I can't believe they would take his side instead of mine.'_ Katara pulled her legs up and tucked her face into the tops of her knees, letting the tears soak into her pants. She had had just about enough of everyone trying to convince her that her attitude toward Zuko was wrong, she didn't think so at all.

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Zuko sighed as he finished up the dishes, wiping the sweat from his forehead; he stood up and washed his hands in the clean water that Haru had dished out for him. Then he walked away from the empty pot that he had also cleaned out so she couldn't talk about left over grim. It was the last thing he needed, was for her to blow up because he didn't clean up the pot.

He opened the door to his bedroom, but stopped halfway in, he heard someone sniffling, and hesitated before following the sound. Zuko froze when he came to the door, he knew all to well that this was Katara's room. But she was crying, should he just leave her alone? Or should he see what was wrong, he wasn't sure which one was smarter, but he decided that even if she tried to kill him it would be best to see what was wrong. So slowly, he knocked on the door, but there was no response, so instead Zuko opened the door halfway, and peeked in.

The sight of Katara crunched up into a ball and crying into her knees made Zuko's heart ache, it wasn't an easy sight to see. Had he really upset her that much? Or was it really something else like Aang had said. Zuko sighed, deciding to be brave; he stepped into the room slowly and walked over to the bed.

"…Katara…are you okay?" he asked softly.

Katara's breathing stopped, and her heart fluttered, _'what…what is he doing in my room?!'_ Katara didn't speak, but she heard Zuko take another hesitant step toward her, "Katara?" he said again, his tone still soft.

"What do you want?" Katara asked, doing her best to sound gruff. Zuko sighed and let his arms dangle at his sides, "I was just wondering if you were okay…"

"Tch, what a stupid question," she answered bitterly, "does it look like I am okay?!" her voice raised an octave, making Zuko step back once, "Sorry, I was just…"

"Just what?! Worried? Please don't even go there." Katara hissed, looking away from him, "…I…I was just trying to…"

"Trying to? Trying to what?! Make me feel better…maybe you should have thought about that before you followed us around the world and attacked us at every turn."

Zuko looked down at the ground and rubbed the back of his head, "I don't know what to say to you, every time I try to say something you always come up with something to stop me…I can't even comfort you properly…"

"You wouldn't know what comfort was if it came up and slapped you in the face!" Katara shouted, her head snapping around to look at him, her normally ocean blue eyes, were now sharpened, if one were to express what it looked like, it would be that it looked like someone had frozen the ocean over completely. The gentle waves that had crashed against the beach were now frozen in mid-splash.

Zuko closed his eyes, letting her harsh words sink into his skin, "there's…nothing I can say is there." He whispered.

"No! There isn't!" Katara lept up from her bed, "so why don't you leave me to my misery! You can't possibly understand anything I go through, so there is nothing you can say to console me!"

Zuko sighed, "you're right, I'm sorry that there is nothing I can say, and…I am sorry for bothering you…I just thought…"

"Well you thought wrong!" Katara shrieked, tears pouring down her cheeks, she spun around so that her back was toward him. She couldn't let him see her cry, she wouldn't let him see her cry, it would forever embarrass her if she let him see her like that, she didn't want him to know she had a weak side.

Zuko turned away from her and left the room, _'I shouldn't have gone in there I should have gone with my gut.'_ He thought, before breathing and stepping away from her room.

Katara turned around to see if he had really left, _'He left…'_ Katara glared at the ground, _'that's good!'_ she tried to convince herself that it was a good thing, but deep inside she felt a tight feeling of regret for making him leave, why should she feel that way? He didn't deserve to comfort her, he didn't deserve to see her cry, and she wiped her tears away angrily, and then took her seat on the bed, pressing her face into her pillow, letting the tears flow. Everything had been so overwhelming, and she wasn't sure if she could handle all the pressure that was put on her. Katara wrapped her arms around her pillow, whenever she felt like she had grown at all; she would always be reminded of the fact that she was still only a teenager at some point in time. Even if she had grown in her bending abilities, she still had a lot of growing to do emotionally.

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The tension between Zuko and Katara didn't seem to be any better, in fact it seemed a lot worse, whenever they were around the others, they wouldn't look at each other and when they passed each other, they would ignore one another as if the other didn't exist, and that was of course unless Katara ordered Zuko to do something. Everyone else was feeling the built up tension that was getting thick enough to cut.

Aang sighed, he had really hoped Katara would have put her grudge behind her, but it seemed that his talk hadn't affected her at all. "So what do we do?"

"There is nothing to do." Haru said, crossing his arms, "Katara is stubborn and so is Zuko, so…either way, it's not going to work. Besides if Zuko even tried to get close to her, I have a feeling he might lose a body part."

"An arm or leg," Toph muttered.

Aang nodded, he had called a secret meeting to discuss what was going on between Katara and Zuko, but it didn't seem like anyone had a solution to the problem. "Aang, has this whole stand off between those two affected your training?" Sokka asked, leaning back on one arm.

Aang shook his head, "not that I can tell, he doesn't seem to be bothered when we are training, it's as if the tiff between them doesn't exist…"

"All I can say is that it's getting really annoying and I think they are being childish." Tao said, raising his hand and then letting it drop, "I really think they should put behind their differences."

"Easier said than done," Sokka pointed out.

"Maaan, this is getting us no where." Aang said flopping onto his back, and staring up at the stone ceiling.

"Yeah, this kinda sucks." Sokka muttered.

"I guess we can't do anything but let them alone." Haru said with a shrug. "Guess your right."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Zuko sighed; he hadn't spoken to Katara since the night he had gone into her room to see if she was alright, he didn't want to upset her more than he already had. At the moment he was sharpening his sword, not caring that it was already as sharp as it was going to get, finally he put the wet stone down and stood up, leaving the room, he came to the camp fire where everyone had gathered, it had been a week since his fight with Katara.

Zuko thought of a joke that his uncle had told, while he brewed the tea, "I have a funny tea joke that my Uncle used to tell…"

"Well let's hear it." Sokka said, taking a cup.

"Well, I don't remember the exact joke, but the punch line is; Leaf me alone!" Zuko quoted. Everyone stared at him, "Well, it's a lot better when my Uncle tells it." He said, bending next to Katara with the tray of tea cups.

"That's probably because your Uncle remembers the whole thing," she said smirking, the group chuckled and Zuko smiled.

"Hey, Zuko…can I talk to you?" Sokka said, Zuko nodded and set down the tray, following Sokka away from the camp fire.

Katara watched them go and arched a brow, _'I wonder what Sokka wants to talk with Zuko about, what is it that he couldn't say in front of us…'_ Katara sipped her tea and then scrunched her nose, _'Wow, one thing I can say, is that Zuko can't make tea.'_ Katara sighed and started a fresh batch of tea, carefully putting the tea leaves into the separator that kept the leaves from the tea, she glanced up Zuko and Sokka who were making their way back to the fire, Zuko didn't look very happy and Sokka had the expression of trying to blow something off. Katara recognized that look; he had given it to her quite a few times after all.

"So Sokka, what were you talking to Zuko about?" Katara asked, nosily. Sokka looked up at her, "Talking? Oh! I was just sharing some jokes with Zuko!" Sokka gave Katara that crazy grin, which made her arch a brow. "Oh, yeah, and how did Zuko like them?" she turned her attention to Zuko who blinked rapidly, aware of the fact that her blue eyes were boring into his skull.

"Ah…they…were…interesting." Zuko stammered.

Toph snorted, "I bet!" she grinned and Zuko smiled slightly, he heard the underlining tone of sarcasm in her voice which made everyone laugh except Sokka who frowned, "oh fine! I have some good jokes though!" he argued, "Just you wait." He said.

Katara rolled her eyes, "riiight, if you have a good one, we'll let you know." Katara's blue eyes drifted back to Zuko, she observed him for a moment, his long dark hair, his golden eyes, and his scar. She narrowed her eyes, to think she had almost healed him, Katara looked away, the truth was, even though she had saved Aang with it, she still felt a deep hole of regret for not healing Zuko's scar.

"Alright everyone time for bed." Katara ordered a half an hour later. Everyone nodded, not about to argue with her before heading to bed. Katara picked the pot up off the fire with two pieces of cloth and placed it down on the cool stone, before looking at the fire and splashing water on it. But the fire sparked back to life, "what the…" she mumbled and tried again.

"Here…let me do it." Zuko said bending down next to her and sucking the fire away, making it disappear. Katara rolled her eyes, "thanks… but I could have done it." She said, without looking up at him. Zuko shrugged, "I was just trying to make it easier on you." Zuko's pale hand slid back and accidentally landed on Katara's, and for a long moment neither moved their hands. They both stared at their hands and then they yanked them away simultaneously. "Sorry." Zuko jolted to his feet and walked away.

Katara watched him go and then looked at the wood that was charred, _'what…what was that…my heart…'_ Katara placed a hand on her chest and then stood up, _'don't think about it Katara!'_ she sloshed out the pot, cleaning it sloppily, and then left to her room.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Katara, you won't believe this!" Toph said, busting into Katara's room, "Woah…" Toph froze in her tracks, "hey are you okay?" she asked arching a brow, "you seem really frazzled." Katara looked up from where her face had been mooshed in the pillow all night, giving her really bad bed-head. "Oh, I'm fine…" she mumbled, rubbing her eyes, "what's up?"

"…Oh yeah! Well, the boys left, Sokka and Zuko that is." Toph said putting a piece of paper down in front of Katara, "Hunh?"

"And they took the blimp." Toph said shrugging.

"Gone fishing?" Katara muttered, she stood up and walked out of the room and "where did you find this?"

"Attached to Momo," Toph said pointing to the sleeping lemur. "Ah, should have known." Katara said, "Aang, you have instructions on here, do fifty frog squats every time you hear a badger-frog croak."

Aang grinned and snuggled up, and just as he was about to get back into his sleepy state, a badger-frog croaked, "Uhh… no one else has homework!" he complained before standing.

Katara smiled and put the note down, "well I guess we will see them in a few days." She walked way from Toph and went to go clean up, that meant she had a lot of alone time, she could think over all the events that had been taking place and perhaps she would ease up a bit on Zuko, after all he was going with Sokka to go fishing, that couldn't have been an easy decision to make. "For a few days, I am free…" she grinned and grabbed her things, "Come on Toph! Let's go swim!" she grabbed Toph's arm and pulled her up the stairs and followed the river to the small pool.

"Wow, you are eager to swim." Toph said, she was up there before she could even complain, so she decided to swim too. "I guess swimming won't be too bad." She took off her outer garments and along with Katara they both dove into the water, and started to splash around disturbing any kind of peace that had previously occupied this area.

"I forgot what it was like to really relax…" Toph said, after one of their larger water fights, she sat on the edge of the river bank, listening to Katara wash her hair out. "Yeah, it's nice to get away from the boys." Katara said, tugging on her hair, to get the water out of it. "I think it's about time Haru, Tao and The Duke do some chores, what about you?" Katara said looking at Toph.

"Yeah, your probably right, after all you've been making Zuko so everything lately, they've gotten spoiled." Toph smirked, "putting them to work outta be fun."

Katara laughed, "yeah, if we can convince them to do it."

"I really don't think that will be a problem Katara, you've scared them to the point that they would probably jump off a cliff if you said that they should." Toph said, grinning evilly.

"Uh! I don't think I scared them that badly." Katara said, putting her hands on her hips, she couldn't help but grin though, she was already feeling refreshed, it was good to hang out with Toph now and then, a little girl company was always a good thing. "Oh yeah? Prove me wrong." Toph taunted.

Katara splashed Toph with a puddle of water, making Toph's eyes narrow, "oh you are so going to get it!" Toph said, jumping up and hitting Katara with a pile of mud. "Ugh!" Katara cried, "That's disgusting! It got in my mouth!" she quickly rinsed out her mouth with water, before the next blop of mud came flying at her. Toph laughed evilly, "That's what you get for having your mouth open!"

Katara narrowed her eyes, "you are so on…" Katara summoned a huge ball of water and threw it at Toph, who stepped aside and then threw another large pile of mud at Katara who dodged it, "HA! You missed." She said pointing a finger at Toph.

"AGG!" Katara fell over backwards as an unbelievably large pile of mud hit her square in the face, she splashed into the water and her feet went up in the air, before resurfacing and gasping for air around the mud, "You!"

Toph laughed loudly, before she was tugged into the water.

After they had beat each other to exhaustion, they both lay out on the grass, letting the sun dry the water off of them, the water dripped down Katara's face, as she stared up at the clouds, "it's really pretty Toph, it's a shame you can't see it."

"Well, it's a lot easier to cope with the fact that I can't see it since I've never seen it." Toph replied, shrugging, her arms tucked behind her head. Katara smiled, "I guess that would be easier to deal with."

"Yeah, if you were like me then you would understand," Toph said smiling.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

When they returned to the temple, the boys were goofing off, and Katara smirked, "Okay boys, because my help is gone, you are going to help me until they get back, got it?" Haru, The Duke and Tao all froze and stared at Katara in shock and slight horror, "Don't worry, she won't yell at you like she does Zuko." Toph said trying to comfort their fears. Haru felt sweat drip down his neck, "maybe…I could just…"

"Nope! Everyone helps." Katara said, walking toward them, "Teo you will do the drying for dishes, The Duke you will be hanging laundry and Haru you will be washing the dishes, got it?"

"…Yes.." the mumbled round of 'yeses' made Toph snicker, "well, don't think of it as a job, but more as a time to show off just how manly you all can be."

"But, I'm still a kid…" The Duke pointed out.

"So? You are never too young to prove just how manly you can be," Toph said waving a hand dismissively. "After all Aang is only twelve and he showed me that he could be manly, the very first time I started to train him."

"I forgot you were his earth bending master." Haru said.

"Let's not get distracted here…" Katara said arching a brow, "now come on! We have work to do! Get to it." She said pointing at the things she had assigned to them. The boys all gritted their teeth and started to work.

"Ah, it feels nice not having to do anything." Katara said grinning, "The only thing I have to do today is make dinner, what an easy job."

Toph and her both laughed and sat down to enjoy the sight of the boys cleaning. _'There's definitely something nice about seeing these boys work hard for their meals, I mean normally they are all play and no work, so…it's about time I put them to work…but when Zuko and Sokka get back, they are going to have to pull their own weight too.'_ Katara leaned back on her hands, _'but for now, I am satisfied just watching Haru, Tao and The Duke work. I don't know why…maybe it's because of all that stuff guys usually say about girls…'_ Katara smirked, yes this was indeed enjoyable.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N:** O.O I.. I... I am so happy that you all reviewed!! It makes me so happy to read them when I see them! I am so thankful to all of you! And guess what? I just realized that I didn't put a disclaimer on this... at least I don't remember doing it... so... here I go. .

**EDIT:** Thank you guys for pointing out my spelling mistakes on Appa and Teo .;;; I am a fool sometimes ya know, and I do have an excuse for that spelling error, but I won't say what it is! Thanks again for all the reviews! ^-^ (I couldn't find Teo's messed up name in this chapter...is it in chap 6?)

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing! I promise!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"**I can honestly say, you've been on my mind, since I got up today."- Goodbye, Miley Cyrus.**

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Katara sat up quickly, she had a nightmare about something that she couldn't remember, so instead of trying to remember it, she threw the sheets off and walked out of the room, it was morning anyway. She blinked rapidly when she saw the huge battle ship that was parked next to the temples edge. "Sokka!" she shouted running toward the ship, with Toph at her side.

"What happened to the blimp?" She asked, stopping at the ramp, where Sokka now stood, "Well, let's just say we traded it in for a better model." He shrugged with a grin. "So, you did you bring anything back?"

"Well, not food wise…but we did bring something good back." Sokka turned to look at the door, as Hakoda stepped out. "DAD!" Katara shouted, running up the ramp and hugging her father tightly, Sokka smiled and stepped up to get a hug too.

"Seriously, you didn't catch anything?" Toph asked arching a dark brow. Katara rolled her eyes, "Toph…"

Sokka shrugged, "but guess what?" Sokka reached an arm around Hakoda and grabbed the arm of a smaller figure, yanking her out from behind his father, "I brought back Suki!" he grinned and hugged her tightly. Katara smiled, "Well, now I have another person to talk too!" she said hugging Suki.

"I'm so glad that you are safe Katara." Suki said, before pulling away. Zuko had already descended the ramp and was standing next to Toph. "Welcome back buddy." Toph said, smiling, in his general direction. Zuko smiled, "thanks…" he glanced up at Katara who walked with her arm around Hakoda, toward the camp, she chattered about something that Zuko couldn't make out, but it made Hakoda smile, so it must've been good. Suki and Sokka walked side by side, hand in hand, Suki smiled reassuringly at Zuko, it was obvious that he felt uncomfortable again now that he was back in range of Katara's rage. But he hoped since her father was here, that she would settle down a little.

Zuko sighed and went to his room, where he flopped on the bed, "ugh…that was definitely an adventure…" he muttered, an arm getting slung lazily over his eyes. He was exhausted beyond reason from the past trip, and really needed to get some sleep, or else he wasn't sure how long he would last on his feet. Just as Zuko's eyes were shutting, the door to his bedroom opened, "Hey, are you okay?" Sokka asked.

"…yeah I am fine." Zuko replied, trying to slip into sleep peacefully. Sokka nodded, "okay, I'll leave you alone," he closed the door and Zuko fell into a restless sleep, that he couldn't seem to pull himself from. Dreams of his past flooded his mind as he slept, memories of Katara's face and many other faces, flitted through his head, until he finally woke up to silence, which was odd because he could have sworn he heard laughter earlier. Zuko rubbed his eyes and stood up, yawning widely before stepping out of the room and he looked around, everyone had obviously gone to sleep because they weren't lurking in the halls. He walked out to the dining part of the temple and spotted Katara, cleaning up the pots.

"You missed dinner," she said, her voice at a normal pitch for once.

"Yeah, I'm sorry, I was asleep." Zuko said slowly, not moving from the spot he had entered in. Katara didn't look up at him, but she nodded toward a bowl, "I saved you some…"

Zuko blinked surprised, and took slow steps toward the bowl, which was closer to Katara. "Thank you…" he murmured, before sitting down and sipping the soup with welcoming taste buds, he was starving and thoroughly thankful that Katara had saved him soup. For a long time it was just Zuko eating, and finally Katara stood, her back faced him when she spoke.

"Hey…"

Zuko looked up at her back, and her long wavy hair, "Thank you, it's thanks to you and Sokka that you brought my Father back…" Katara shrugged, "sleep well." She walked down the hall and disappeared from Zuko's sight before he could reply. _'Wow…she didn't get mad at me about letting Sokka go out on this crazy adventure…'_ he thought mildly shocked. Zuko put the bowl down on the stone edge of the fountain and dunked a cup into the fountain for a drink; he sipped it gently while thinking. Katara had either simmered down a bit while he had been gone or her Dad being here had really made her cheerful. Either way he was just glad she hadn't shouted at him.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The cheerful mood Katara had been in came and went, of course she was still nice to everyone else, but Zuko. At first Zuko had been hopeful, but now his attitude had shifted and he had to slam that mental wall back up into place to keep from getting mad at Katara for always yelling at him. Katara's frustration and anger seemed to have doubled since he had got back, Zuko sighed he was sitting alone away from the group, unwilling to be beaten up emotionally.

He had just barely escaped a clash with Katara; Zuko had skidded past her as quickly as he could and had taken to hiding here where she never looked for him. Zuko ran a hand through his dark brown hair, tugging on a few tiny knots that tangled themselves there. _'When we first got back…Katara didn't seem as upset, and now, a day later she has suddenly burst into a rage about something, like she's remembered something she had forgotten until now…I wonder what it is…it obviously has to do with me, otherwise she wouldn't be so upset.'_ Zuko thought as he fiddled absently with the necklace, he had put it on once he had returned and hadn't taken it off since.

Zuko's thoughts weren't a place that many people would want to go, they were often scrambled and disoriented, sure he had clear thoughts sometimes, but he found it hard to stay on one subject at time when so many bad things were happening, he couldn't get those things out of his mind and therefore he was always racing between good and evil thoughts. Zuko's concern for the people around him drove him to think even harder on what to do in the future, one could say that he was even more of a planner than Sokka, even if Zuko didn't think he was he most definitely was. Which is why when it came to thinking about Katara, he planned out moves he would make to stay on her good side, or at least to stay out of her way. The last thing he wanted was for her to fight him over something completely ridiculous that was meaningless in every way in his mind.

With a sigh Zuko turned his golden eyes to the sky; he didn't know what he would do about Katara all he knew was that he had to dodge her to keep her from sending aggressive words his way. But he wasn't out of her clutches yet, because before he could even notice her presence Katara stood next to him, her blue eyes glaring down at his sitting figure.

"Where have you been?" Katara asked arching a brow, making Zuko who had previously been deep in thought start and look up at her, _'how did she find me?'_ he wondered, inwardly kicking himself for not hiding in a different place every time he hid from her. _'Think of something fast Zuko.'_

"Um…I was just… taking some time to think." Zuko said, smoothly throwing in a semi-lie. It was almost true. Katara glared, "oh really? Well while you've been thinking, the dishes haven't been getting cleaned, so I suggest you get up off your butt and go clean up the dishes, it's your turn."

Zuko sighed and his fingers went up to the pendant that he twirled around for a moment, "Ugh, you make me sick…" Katara muttered, crossing her arms furiously. "What did I do?" Zuko asked looking up at her, trying to figure out just what it was that made her so mad at him all the time.

"I can't believe you! You know how precious the necklace is to me! And you…you had the nerve to go and carve your own just because you could. Are you trying to mock me and the way the Water tribe lives?!" Katara's voice rose higher and higher until she was shouting at Zuko, her arms waving around wildly as she spoke. Zuko thanked whoever was watching over him that he wasn't standing; it was a good possibility that he would've been hit in the gut or face several times.

"…Necklace…?" Zuko's fingers froze on the pendant, and he realized what she was talking about, _'oh…man.'_ "Look, it's not what you think." Zuko said, closing his eyes as he tried to explain.

"Oh yeah? Then what is it! Because it looks a lot like you are mocking my tribe." Katara flared, her arms crossing tightly over her stomach as she gritted her teeth.

Zuko released a humorless chuckle and looked up at Katara, "I am not trying to "mock" your tribe alright?" He pulled the necklace over his head and held it in his palm, "I bought this in the marketplace by the palace, it was really beautiful so I couldn't help but buy it." Zuko's face fell as he spoke and Katara's expression softened.

"I…bought it for my girlfriend…" he muttered.

"Oh…?" Katara tried to hide her curiosity but some of the curiousness she felt leaked into her voice. "Yeah, but…" Zuko looked away from the necklace at the stone floor. "She didn't like it…" Zuko finished. Katara's eyes widened, as much as she disliked Zuko, she couldn't help but feel a shred of sympathy, he looked really hurt by the fact that his girlfriend, whoever she was, hadn't liked the gift. Katara rolled her eyes, only a truly pathetic girl wouldn't like something that had been carved so beautifully and had obviously been made with tender loving care. Katara knelt down next to Zuko and looked closely at the pendant; the majority of the necklace was red, while the parts that carved around the red to make the shape of the fire lily were golden.

Zuko didn't seem to notice her bending next to him until he turned his head to her, he blinked rapidly, startled to see her at that level. "May I see it?" She asked, without looking up at him, her blue eyes stuck on the pendant.

"Uh, yeah sure," Zuko reluctantly handed it over to Katara, hoping that she wouldn't throw it somewhere, then again that wasn't really Katara's style. "It's really beautiful." Katara said, her thumb stroking over it, in a delicate caress. "And, your girlfriend didn't like it?" her tone was disbelieving as her eyebrows shot up. "That's incredible."

Zuko shrugged, "I should have known she wouldn't like it, she's just not that type of person." He muttered the last part, which made Katara look up at him, "I'm sorry." She wasn't entirely sure why she said it, but she had and she meant it, she was sorry that his girlfriend hadn't been able to appreciate such a gift, she was sorry his girlfriend didn't seem to care much about him or his feelings and she was sorry that she had assumed he was mocking her tribe.

"It's okay…" Zuko said, "I doubt I'll ever see her again." He looked away, over the ravine's edge, staring at the wall that cracked and crumbled, like an unnatural cut that had been sliced open with a samurai's sword. Zuko observed the jagged edges, and the curved lines, pretending to be more interested in those than in Katara.

For a long time, neither of them spoke, they just sat together in a comfortable silence, something they hadn't enjoyed together since their very first meeting, they didn't feel the need to talk because there was no need, the silence said it all, or at least Zuko hoped it did. Katara held onto the necklace, because she seemed to be fascinated by it, almost as much as Zuko had been when he first threw it into the turtle-duck pond. Her blue eyes scanned its surface and she flipped it around several times in her hands, looking for something that she couldn't seem to find. Zuko enjoyed sitting here with her, she had been so angry at him lately, that it had got to a point that he had been having a hard time understanding her, but now, he could sort of understand some of the pressure she must have on her shoulders.

Taking care of five boys, Toph and now her Father, and Suki, having to cook every night for them, and worrying every second about them, it must be tiring to do all of that at once. It wasn't a wonder Katara's emotions were strained, Zuko could understand now that he was her punching bag, she took her stress out on him because he was the "enemy" and he was a good excuse. Zuko sighed, sure it hurt that she was always yelling at him, but maybe it wouldn't be so bad from now on, maybe her anger toward him would simmer into something more aloof. And her anger would be the silent kind of anger that was only shown through her eyes and body language.

Zuko glanced at Katara from the corner of his eye, she sat on her knees, leaning her right shoulder against the wall, and had both hands in her lap. The pendant glittered in her palm as she turned it over again for the fifth time; her long dark hair fell in waves over her shoulder framing her face, a face of perfection. Yes, her face was perfect, at least in his eyes, the shape of her face, the shape of her lips, her nose, and her eyes…her ears even. Everything, even the cold harsh glares she gave him.

Strange that he should think these things now, Zuko recalled having dreams about Katara before he had come here, and wondered if it had been some kind of premonition of the fact that he was going to be coming here. Zuko sighed and stretched his legs, whatever it was, he was glad he was here, he felt a sense of right, and though it wasn't thoroughly completed yet, he knew that feeling would soon engulf him, and he would never have to wonder about the right choice again.

Zuko's eyelids began to feel heavy and slowly they drooped until they closed over his golden eyes fully.

Several long minutes later, Katara looked up, opening her mouth to speak, when she noticed that Zuko was asleep, "Well…okay." She whispered, before hesitatingly replacing the necklace around Zuko's neck, her dark hands slid down off his neck and without even thinking about her slender fingers stroked through his hair and she smiled fondly.

_'WAIT! WHAT?! WOAH! Katara! Get your hands off him!'_ her mind screamed frantically, but it was too late, she had already felt his hair, and it was softer than silk and thick like a deep dark chocolate. Katara yanked her hand back, and held it back by the wrist with her other hand, her breathing had increased dramatically as did her heart rate, beating a mile a minute. _'What…what…was that? Why…why would you do that Katara? You hate him remember?!'_ Katara nodded to herself and then looked up at Zuko, his sleeping face made him look so innocent and vulnerable, it was like his shields had fallen and she could reach right into his soul.

_'He trusted you enough to fall asleep next to you, knowing that you wouldn't kill him, maybe he isn't all that bad.'_ Katara sighed, her heart and mind were being torn in two different directions, but she pushed the thoughts of Zuko aside and let her instincts take over, "Zuko," she shook him gently, regretting having to wake him. "You need to sleep in your room." She said, shaking him again.

"Hn?" Zuko opened one of his eyes, "oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize I fell asleep…" he stretched his arms up and then shook his head, Katara shrugged, "Well I didn't either until just now…" _'Liar!'_ Katara rolled her eyes.

"Thanks." Zuko said, before standing, "I'll see you in the morning." He mumbled before stumbling off to bed, Katara followed behind him, reaching out to him whenever he nearly fell on his face; honestly he was a walking hazard when he was tired. "Night," he did his best to wave, before shutting his door, and Katara sighed, "what an impossible person." She muttered, going to her room, both of them unaware of the danger that would await them the next morning when they woke up.

Katara felt it before her other senses were even aware of it, someone's voice called her name in the distance, but she couldn't find them, she searched through the fog that surrounded her, trying to call back but to no avail, she couldn't speak. Her voice was crippled and she would never reach the person in the fog.

Suddenly the voice got louder, and she opened her mouth, trying to scream that she was there, she started to run toward the voice and with a jolt Katara sat up and hit someone in the head.

"Oww…" they both groaned, holding their heads, "Katara…" the familiar voice of Zuko registered to Katara and she looked up, realizing his voice had been the one to save her from her terrible nightmare. Unfortunately, she had woken up to another one, the strong scent of oil and fire made her look around, and her eyes widened at what she saw. Azula had found them; there was no doubt about it

"Come on, you have to get up," Sokka said, suddenly at her side, Katara nodded and jumped to her feet, wiping away the fog that was swirling around in her brain, she didn't have the time to be tired. Just as they were making their way to Oppa, a bomb hit the ceiling above where Katara stood, and Zuko saw it from where he stood, _'Ngh!'_ Zuko lunged at Katara, tackling her and rolling her out of the way of danger.

"What are you doing?!" Katara's growl made Zuko look down.

"Saving your life," his tone had the 'duh' sound in it, which only irritated Katara more, "Well I could've gotten out of the way myself!" Katara pushed his arm off her and stood up.

"A simple thank you would have sufficed." Zuko muttered, pushing himself to his feet. Zuko should have known that Azula would follow him, but he had been sure she wouldn't find him until much later, _'Guess I was wrong, but that's not unusual.'_ He thought bitterly. He had no choice, he would hold Azula off until the others were safe, how he would get away from her he didn't know, but he was going to have to find a way to live…

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The feeling of air rushing past Zuko's head was a sensation he had never had before, he had never experienced a free fall that could lead to a thousand foot drop, even then that wasn't very long, he knew that if someone didn't save him, he would die. Zuko's hands flailed in the air as he desperately tried to grab something that might appear magically but wasn't there. He closed his eyes, there was no other option, _'I can't die, I can't…'_ he thought, his mind numb from the fall.

It was then he heard a strange sound, of something slicing through the wind, defying its current, and someone's warm hands latched onto his arms. Zuko felt his body being yanked out of the air and onto a hard surface.

Zuko's eyes opened and he looked up at Katara who was leaning over him, "He's fine." She said, turning her head to look at Aang, even then Zuko couldn't believe that Katara had saved him. Zuko sat up, putting a hand on his head as it started to spin, "Yeah, I'm okay." He looked up and met eyes with his younger sister, _'Someone that young really shouldn't be that evil…'_ he thought, his eyes narrowing, but no one would ever guess that Azula was younger than him, her attitude was completely different from his own, she was definitely more sly and cunning.

Zuko groaned, remembering the time he had tried to be sly and cunning, it really hadn't worked, he glanced at Katara, especially hadn't worked on her. "Where can we go?" Aang asked looking back at Zuko, "just find somewhere that would be safe enough from Azula." Zuko suggested waving a hand. "Until we can reach a safer place…"

Aang landed Appa on the outskirts of the Fire Nation near the ocean; Zuko climbed off Appa and helped Toph down from the saddle. Sokka jumped down and Katara tossed the sleeping bags off the side, "that's pretty much everything." Katara mumbled, sliding off of Appa and landing safely on the ground.

"How did Azula find us?" Sokka asked looking at Zuko.

"Yeah, I thought that you guys weren't followed," Toph shrugged her shoulders, letting her arms go out to the sides.

"Maybe, she just knows instinctively where her brother is." Katara muttered, not looking up at the group. Zuko sighed, "Yeah that could be it…" he said, turning away from the group and grabbing his sleeping bag off the ground.

Katara became deathly silent as she created a fire for them to sit around, they had been flying for hours, and finally found a nice place to land, so Katara assumed everyone was hungry. The fire illuminated their faces, as they sat around the camp, Zuko stared down at his bowl and then he looked up nervously at the group, with a sigh he set the bowl down.

"Look, I'm really sorry about what happened, I didn't mean for her to find us, I just want you guys to know that I didn't do that on purpose…And…I'm really very sorry." Zuko's eyes were closed as he spoke, afraid to see the others reactions. For a long time there was silence, and finally someone spoke.

"Zuko, no one blames you for what happened, it could have happened to anyone," Aang said, holding his hand up in a reassuring way.

"Aang's right Zuko, it probably would have happened whether you were with us or not." Sokka said shrugging. Zuko looked up startled, his eyes opening wide, his gaze shifted from Aang and Sokka. "Wow…I didn't expect that…that's really nice, thank you guys, I really don't deserve your kindness." Zuko said, smiling slightly, Aang, Sokka, Suki and Toph smiled back, but Katara's gruff voice interrupted their happy moment.

"Yeah, no kidding," she muttered, before standing up and walking away from the group, Zuko watched her go and then sighed, he stood up and followed her after a few minutes, when the silence at the fire became unbearable. Zuko followed the dusty trail down to the bank edge where Katara stood, her arms crossed tightly over her chest and her back turned toward him, she glared off toward the horizon.

Zuko sighed again, knowing that this could be bad, but he didn't mind, he wanted to know what he could do to make things better with her. So instead of retreating he came toward her. "Katara, everyone trusts me now… and it's a good feeling, so what's up with you?" he asked, arching an eyebrow, perhaps not the best way to approach her, but he was a little aggravated with her behavior.

"Oh? Everyone trusts you now?!" Katara shouted, spinning around to face him, "I was the first one to trust you! And you betrayed my trust!" the pain in her voice was evident. Zuko winced, "I know! Katara, what can I do to make it up to you?" he asked looking up.

Katara glared at him, "I know, maybe you can reverse time and erase every wrong thing the fire nation has done! Or maybe you could get more strength and defeat the fire lord for Aang! Or here's an idea," Katara said, her voice growing in anger and then she got up in Zuko's face, "You can give me my mother back!" she pushed past him, not giving him a chance to respond and disappeared over the sand dune.

Zuko stood on the beach for a few moments longer, unsure of what to do; he didn't know what to do. After all Katara had just shouted at him to give her back her mother, how should he respond? Shock, anger, concern for Katara's mental state?

Zuko looked up at the sky, he knew of only one person who might know what to tell him to fix what was wrong. Zuko turned away from the beach, the waves crashing nosily against the sand, as if telling him he didn't belong there and he needed to leave. Zuko made his way back up the path, and headed in the direction of Sokka's tent, he glanced to his left, "Suki? What are you doing? Do you need something from Sokka too?" he asked, arching a brow. Suki looked startled and for a moment didn't say anything, "Uh…no, no I don't need anything…" she blinked rapidly as Zuko stared, "Night!" she turned around quickly and walked away, leaving Zuko weirded out, little did he know the experience he was going to have was going to be worse than what he had just encountered.

Zuko opened the tent and stepped inside, at first it was hard to come to grips with what he saw, Sokka, lying on the floor on his stomach with his feet up in the air, and a rose in his mouth. "Well, hello-" he stopped in mid-sentence and the rose suddenly disappeared; Sokka had just sucked it into his mouth and swallowed it. Zuko blinked, not entirely sure how he should react, "Zuko!" Sokka said sitting up, obviously embarrassed.

"What were you just doing?" Zuko asked, not sure he wanted to know the answer to that question. Sokka rubbed the back of his head, his hand slipping into his hair, "Uh, nothing…so…what can I do for you?" he asked, seeming a little impatient.

"Your sister hates me and I don't know why! I just confronted Katara about what she had against me, and she shouted something at me that made me wonder…Sokka, what happened to your mother?" Zuko asked. Sokka blinked rapidly, "our mother? She was killed by the fire nation…" he paused, "why? What exactly did Katara say to you?"

"Well, I asked her what I could do to make it up to her for betraying her trust, and she said I could bring your mother back…" Zuko shrugged, obviously unknowing of what to do next. Sokka blinked rapidly, "really? Well, she is more than likely blaming everything that happened in the past on you, sorta like miss-directed rage I guess," Sokka sighed, "So, what are you going to do about this?" he asked arching a brow. Zuko shrugged, "I'm not sure, what can I do to make it better?"

Sokka shrugged, "I dunno, maybe you can try talking to her later on, and figure out something that will compromise to make her understand that it's not your fault our mother died. Katara does hate the fire nation though…" Sokka's face twisted into a strange look and he started to babble, "Not that she hates you, I mean you are- were, fire nation, but she only hates the people who killed our mother…and yeah, you aren't like them so…" he waved his hands around frantically, and tried to make things sound better. But Zuko knew what Sokka was talking about, or at least he hoped he knew. Zuko sighed, "Sokka, I want to know what happened to your Mother…"

After Sokka finished explaining what had happened, Zuko put everything in place, he knew what he had to do. "Thanks Sokka."

"No problem!!" Sokka said, over-exaggeratedly, "Thanks for stopping by!" Sokka forced Zuko out of the tent, he sighed with relief, "phew! Thought he'd never leave."

"Hey…Suki" he whispered, poking his head out of the tent, only to see Zuko standing off to the right of the tent.

"Uh…it's nothing." Sokka grinned innocently, and Zuko disappeared. Sokka stood up, ten minutes after Zuko left, he poked his head out and looked for Suki but didn't see her, so with a sigh he left the tent and went to Suki's, "Hey, Suki…sorry about that, ready to come to my tent?" he grinned and Suki looked up as he spoke, "sure…" she stood up and followed him out.

"What did Zuko want?" Suki asked, arching a brow as she followed Sokka.

"Oh, Katara got mad at him, and he wanted to know what he could do to make it better, apparently, this has been bothering them both for a really long time." Sokka shrugged. Suki nodded, "I see…"

Zuko flopped down in his tent, he wanted to help Katara, he wanted to bring her mother back, but what could he do? He wasn't a magician or a necromancer, besides it was against the laws of nature to do that. Zuko closed his eyes; he wanted to make Katara happy, for some reason that was very important to him. Zuko sighed, "Katara…" he murmured, a tight feeling gripped his chest, as he thought about her hating him for the rest of his existence, at the time he wasn't sure why that bothered him so much, but it did, so badly that it made him want to cry. And that was not something Zuko did lightly, Katara had become an important person in his life and he hadn't even realized it, and it was just starting to strike him that she was one of the most important people in his life besides his Uncle.

But the way he cared about Katara was different from how he cared for his Uncle, when she was upset at him, it made him feel like he was married to her and was disappointing her in every way. With his Uncle it was more like disappointing his Father, a better Father than his real Father, someone who actually cared about him. Zuko didn't know exactly how to explain the feelings he had for Katara, but he wanted her to be happy, and he would do practically anything to make her happy again.

These thoughts and feelings were something he had tucked away a long time ago, to keep them from bothering his plans, but now he was letting his feelings sink in, sure he couldn't name what he was feeling. _'If Uncle were here, he would know what to tell me, he would know what I was feeling, and he would tell me… or maybe he wouldn't.'_ Zuko smacked his forehead, his Uncle was more of the; "Learn it yourself" lesson kind of person, not the; "Here's the answer! It's for the best." kind of person. So more than likely, his Uncle wouldn't be any help at all.

Zuko opened his eyes, and stared up at the red tent top, his heart fluttered when he thought of Katara actually being nice to him, and if he could please her, that might be more than just in his imagination. Zuko sighed and sat up, propping himself up on his elbows, "Katara…I can help you." he muttered. He stood up and left his tent, going to Katara's where he sat down on the rock in front of her tent, he would wait here for her until morning, he knew what to do, and he hoped she would listen to him before brushing him aside. He wanted to help her, and if it took him days to get that across to her, he would wait here for days.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N:** Hey guys! Wow! I am so grateful for all your comments! It's amazing how many people like this story. It's more reviews than I've ever had! Thanks so much! Your support means a lot to me. I decided to explain something because, I can't remember if I edited this chapter or not, though I did a quick read-through... but I skip around a lot of the stuff that happened in 'Avatar' so that we can move on to more important things. And, if you haven't figured it out yet, this story is following a lot of the basic storyline of the show, but...with a lot of changes, as most of you readers know. You all should know this too, I am so worried that I will let you guys down because it'll get "boring" or something... I'm always nervous when I release a new chapter. If things start slowing down, I'll do my best to edit things and make them more exciting. As most of you know (I think) this was written back in November, and soon all the chapters will run out...but the story won't be finished. So, I think that once I move to my new house, I will start writing the second part of AUR because truthfully, I'm enjoying re-reading the stuff I wrote in a hazed state of mind ^_^

Oh yes, and my internet will be cut June 6th, because of the move. And I probably won't be able to post another chapter for a while, so as a SPECIAL BONUS I am releasing TWO Chapters! Nine is getting edited as you red this, and hopefully will but up shortly! Thank you for supporting me guys! It means a lot!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"**And I know that there's somethin' that's just out of sight.**

**And I feel like I'm finally seeing the light."- We're Ready, Boston.**

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The morning sun broke over the horizon, shining its golden strands across the land, illuminating the world in a beautiful glow. But it was missed by a lot of people, who didn't wake up until nine A.M. Which is exactly when Katara woke up, she sat up slowly, and changed into her daily clothes, putting her hair up like the day before and left the tent she stared for a moment in shock at what she saw, Zuko, with his head hung, obviously sleeping. It looked like he had been there all night long, the sun made his brown hair brighter, and it looked more like brownies of some sort, pretty and silky. At first Katara, wanted to reach out and touch it, but then his head came up and she resisted the urge.

"You look terrible!" she said, compromising for not touching his hair; she decided a rude remark would be better so he didn't get any ideas.

Zuko stood and rubbed his eye while he spoke, "I waited up for you all night," he said simply, turning around when she walked by him, Katara picked up a brush and started to comb her hair. "What do you want?" she said, annoyance lacing her tone.

"I know who killed your mother," Zuko said, calmly. Katara started and looked up from the ground, she hadn't been expecting him to say something like that, maybe beg her for forgiveness, but then again that wasn't Zuko's style. "And I'm going to help you find them," Zuko had to wonder what she was thinking right now, and if she wanted to go after the man or not.

Katara turned around, and the shocked expression on her face, told him everything he needed to know, but the shock turned to slight distrust. Then she nodded, "what makes you think I'd trust you?" she asked, crossing her arms. Zuko shrugged, "I talked to Sokka last night, and he told me about the people who attacked and killed your mother, he told me what the flag looked like…I know who they are Katara, I want to help you." That was probably as close to begging as Katara would ever get from Zuko, she wanted to trust him, she wanted to believe that this was true, and so whether or not he was lying, she would follow him. "Alright, I can't say I fully trust you, but…I trust you enough to know that you aren't lying…" at least she hoped he wasn't.

"We are going to need a few things though…" Katara said, watching him closely for some kind of false emotion, but nothing flickered across his face, his eyes were determined and she shivered a little.

"Don't worry, I know what we need."

They both took their time packing and then they both went down away from the tents, to where Aang, Sokka and Appa sat. "I need to borrow Appa." Katara ordered, as Zuko held the bag over his shoulder, walking right behind her, ready to support her in anyway he could.

Aang looked up at them and then turned away, feeding Appa hay, even though Appa's mouth was already crammed full. "Why? Is it your turn to take a little field trip with Zuko?" Aang joked.

Katara decided to say yes, so her eyebrow rose as she spoke, it had sounded like Aang was jealous. "Yes, it is."

Aang looked at her devastated, as if she had just announced she was eloping with Zuko and never seeing them again. Katara restrained the urge to roll her eyes at him; honestly sometimes he was still a child.

"Oh? What's going on?" Aang asked, suddenly serious, turning around to face Zuko and Katara.

Katara replied, undaunted; "We're going to find the man who took my mother from me!" Sokka's head shot up from the little toy he had been playing with, and suddenly wondered if it had been such a good idea to tell Zuko about what had happened to his mother. Unintentionally, Zuko ratted Sokka out.

"Sokka told me the story last night, I know who did it…and I know how to find him." Zuko said confidently, Katara and Zuko seemed determined to find this man no matter, what for whatever reason they both had to gain from this, they were going, and Sokka was fairly certain that nothing he or Aang said would make them waver. Sokka stood up and approached them, standing near Aang.

"Um…," Aang said, his eyebrows working into a narrowed state, "and what exactly do you think this will accomplish?" he asked. Katara's eyes hardened as she looked at Aang, and for a second she almost lashed out at him.

"Huh." She lowered her head and shook it slowly, "I knew you wouldn't understand." Her voice barely above a whisper as she walked away from the three boys obviously upset. Aang and Sokka watched her for a moment and then Aang stepped forward, "wait, stop! I do understand!" he said, letting his arms stretch out from his sides a little, "you're feeling unbelievable pain and rage… How do you think I felt about Appa when the sand benders took him? How do you think I felt when I found out what the fire nation had done to my people? I hated them for that Katara…"

"She needs this Aang," Zuko's voice cut through whatever else Aang was about to say, after all, he was with her one hundred percent. "This is about getting closure and justice; do you want her to feel like this forever?"

"I don't think so," Aang replied, looking at Zuko, his eyes filled with concern and worry. "I think it's about getting revenge…"

Those words struck a cord in Zuko and in Katara, and Katara felt her rage build up, she was almost at the maximum level, and wasn't sure how much longer she could hold back. "Fine! Maybe this is about getting revenge! Revenge for my Mother and Revenge for me!" Katara's voice was only one level below a snarl. "Maybe that's what I need."

Aang stared at her, Zuko was definitely rubbing off on her, he thought with a bit of annoyance.

"Maybe that's what he deserves." Katara said, glancing over her shoulder at Aang, even if she wasn't right, she still wanted to do it. Aang blinked rapidly for a moment, "Katara…" his voice turned to a reasoning one, "you sound just like Jet."

"This is different!" Katara said, her voice still at the same pitch as she turned to face Aang, "Jet attacked innocent people, not like this man, this man…is a monster!"

"Katara…" Sokka said stepping toward her, he had to be the voice of reason if Aang wasn't working, "she was my Mother too! And I don't think you setting off to kill this man is going to make you feel any better about it, and…it wouldn't make Mom happy either." Sokka mumbled the last part, their mother was a touchy subject for them and Sokka often found it hard to even say 'Mother' or 'Mom.' He didn't want Katara to get hurt because of their mothers death, there was a good reason she had died, and it was to protect Katara that was something Sokka was absolutely certain of. Katara glowered at Sokka, and her rage broke over.

"Then you didn't love her the way I did!" she said, her tongue ripping into Sokka, it hurt a lot to hear her say that, Sokka felt his heart ache as if someone had just stabbed it with a dagger. "Katara…how could you say that?" he whispered, his expression showing just how hurt he was.

"Katara, the priests used to say that revenge is like a two headed viper," Aang looked down, "while you are watching your enemy die, you are being poisoned yourself…revenge can only hurt you Katara, please listen to me." He whispered the last part begging her not to do this.

A strange annoyed sensation flowed into Zuko, he didn't like Aang begging her like that or using his face to try and stop her after all Aang knew how easily Katara could give in when she saw his face, which is perhaps why she wasn't looking at Aang. Zuko also felt like Aang was just trying to keep Katara from doing what she felt she needed to do, and so, he pushed into the conversation. "That's cute," he said sarcastically, "but this isn't air temple pre-school, this is the real world, and sometimes revenge is a part of life, no matter how much you dislike it." He added bitterly.

Aang glanced at Zuko, "Zuko, you should know better than anyone what revenge is like, it's shallow and meaningless and it hurts everyone." Zuko's eyes narrowed, Aang had to hit that key, but before Zuko could retaliate, Katara cut back in, "now that I know he's alive…" she glanced over at Aang, "now that I know he's out there…" she turned around to face him, "I feel like I have no choice, I have to do this! Or else…I may regret not doing it later on in life."

Aang couldn't believe what he was hearing, had Katara lost her mind? No…she hadn't, she just wanted to do this and was blinded by her hate for the man who had taken away the person she cared about and probably because she had been around Zuko, he thought full-fledged annoyance filtering into his body now. She would probably feel the same way, if her mother had lived and her brother had died, and she found out that her brother's killer was still alive.

"Katara, there is another choice, forgiveness…you can forgive him." Aang said meekly.

"That's the same as doing nothing," Zuko said, irritated with all this arguing.

"No it's not; it's easy to do nothing…" Aang looked down before finishing his sentence, "but…it's hard to forgive."

"Not just hard…impossible," Katara turned away from Aang and Sokka, walking away, Zuko glared at them both.

"Why can't you two understand? She may never stop hating this man, even if she doesn't end up killing him! At least she can find out the reason why he did what he did!" Zuko's snarl was a fearsome thing which is perhaps why both boys stepped away from him to hide a little behind Appa, and then Zuko followed her.

"Katara," he said, falling into step with her, "I know that Aang turned us down, but we can still take Appa…I have the clothes that we can wear. We can change into them tonight, and take Appa while Sokka and Aang are asleep." Zuko's suggestion sparked Katara's dwindling flame, and made her stomach turn at the thought, not turn because she was sick, but turn because she was invigorated.

"Right, that's a good idea Zuko…" she glanced over at him, why was he so eager to help her anyway? It was really suspicious; he had just argued her case and defended her against the Avatar and her older brother. Katara couldn't be sure why, but she felt a warmth toward him she hadn't felt before, or perhaps it had always been there, but it had been covered by the icy sheet she had laid over it, trying to hide her true feelings.

"Zuko, I never thought I'd ever say this, but…Thank you. You have no idea how much I appreciate you helping me avenge my mother." Katara's voice was low, but it wasn't aggressive, it was a mix of sadness and regret, and it made Zuko's heart ache. "Don't thank me yet." Even though he said that, he didn't have a shadow of a doubt that this mission was going to fail.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Once the moon's fingers touched the ground and Sokka and Aang were well into sleep, Zuko and Katara snuck out of their tents and walked silently toward Appa, who didn't react to their presence. Zuko handed her the black ninja outfit that he had hidden in his bag, Katara took it gratefully and changed on the other side of Appa where no one could see her. "These outfits are nice…" she murmured, slightly impressed with the clothes. She came back around the other side, and started to fix her hair and stared a little at Zuko who looked amazing in his outfit. It wasn't long until she realized that Aang and Sokka hadn't actually been asleep and they were watching them, Zuko seemed aware of their presences as well, because he didn't react when Aang and Sokka both jumped out from behind a boulder.

"What so you were just going to take Appa anyway?" Aang shouted his annoyance showing deeply in his tone. Katara finished her hair, before glancing back at Aang, "Yes." She said defiantly. Aang sighed and looked down, "that's okay, because I forgive you."

After a moments pause he looked up grinning, "that give you any ideas?" he asked hopefully, _'Give you any ideas about not going with Zuko?' _

All the while Sokka stared at them with a mixture of quizzical-ness and lack of sleep expression.

Katara glared at Aang, "Don't try to stop me!" she growled, noticing Zuko bent on one knee on the ground, tying up their bag, he seemed to be ignoring Aang for now. "I wasn't trying too," Aang said, his eyebrows narrowing. "I've come to understand that this is a journey you need to take, you need to face this man." He admitted, Zuko glanced up; _'Yeah, you did, thanks to me_.' He thought as he rolled his eyes, so that's why past Avatars were so smart, they stole other people's advice and understanding.

Katara nodded, but her glare remained in place as she turned away from Aang and gripped Appa's horn, pulling herself up onto the bison, Zuko was the only one who understood why she had to do this. "But when you do, please, don't choose revenge…let your anger out and then let it go."

Zuko stood up and looked at Aang disgusted. "Okay, we'll be sure to do that, Guru goody-goody and while we're at it maybe we'll invite him over for cake and tea." He said mocking Aang, before climbing up onto Appa and slipping easily into his saddle.

"Really?" Aang asked, looking up hopefully.

"No!" Zuko glared down at the boy, who frowned up at Zuko.

"Thanks for understanding Aang." Katara said, her tone changing slightly as she said that, "yip-yip!" she ordered, giving Appa the cue to take off. Aang watched them go, and hoped that Katara would mull over what he had said.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Zuko and Katara were silent for a few minutes after flight, finally Zuko leaned out against the saddle so he could talk to Katara, "we need to find the fire nation communication tower," he explained. Katara listened to what he was saying, but never responded, she knew what to do, and they were going to do it, then she spoke after he was done; "So, once we find the communications tower, we take the information we need…"

"Not exactly, we need to be stealthy and make sure no one spots us… not going to be easy considering we are riding on a huge bison and the last of its kind. Other wise, the alarms will go off long before we even reach them." Zuko said, his warning only encouraging the fire that was now raging inside of Katara, the fire that was driving her on. They arrived just as the sun set on the horizon and put Appa somewhere he wouldn't be spotted.

In perfect sync, they both moved toward the water at full speed, Katara made a square piece of the water ice and without hesitation, Zuko jumped onto it just as Katara, did and the water pushed them forward, across to the other side, Zuko trusted her totally and completely though that wasn't something Katara noticed at the moment. They had nothing to worry about, both of them were deadly alone, but together they were lethal. Anyone who got in their way was frozen to the wall or knocked unconscious, and they snuck into the communications tower without much trouble, of course your natural case of guards, but nothing they couldn't handle.

Soon they found the map, and Zuko pointed it out, he asked her if she was sure she wanted this, not that he doubted it. Katara's eyes narrowed, that was a yes, so without another word they took off in the direction the map had pointed, the fuel that was being poured into Katara's inner flames, only succeeded in driving her on, her mind on one thing…revenge. For now, she had forgotten everything Aang said, that wasn't important at all, what was important was finding her Mother's killer.

Together they broke down the door that lead to the bridge of the ship they were on and they both cornered the Captain, something happened to the man that Zuko hadn't been expecting, the man bent to Katara's will, and in amazement he watched her. He had never seen anyone do that before, he wasn't sure what she was doing, but it was incredible, it gave a new meaning to the word; "Water-Bender."

Pushing aside his awe, Zuko confronted the Captain, "Tell me you don't remember her face!" Zuko hissed at the Captain who seemed absolutely petrified. "I…I swear I've never seen her before!" the captain begged from behind his mask. "Don't play with me!" Zuko snarled, "I'll make sure you remember!" Zuko lunged forward and threw off the man's helmet, just as Katara tugged down the black mask that had been covering the lower half of her face.

Then it struck her, the face of the captain, it was different. She would know the man's real face anywhere and the one that Zuko was pinning down wasn't him. "He's not the one…" she whispered, looking down, her feelings of disappointment and anger, swelled up inside her, and she didn't know what to do, the real person could already be dead and they didn't know it…but as soon as the new Captain finished explaining that the old captain had retired and lived with his mother, Katara's hope rekindled. Zuko and her both left the ship. And on Appa they departed in the direction of the real killer.

Zuko sat silently in the saddle, Katara had insisted on directing Appa, so he let her, what was he going to do? Tell her that she couldn't. That was definitely not an option, she was so fueled that he was sure if he made her angry she would push him off Appa. Zuko's eyes began to shut, he hadn't got much sleep the night before, and it was catching up to him now, and without meaning to, Zuko fell asleep.

Katara glanced back at Zuko, she was going to ask him something, but he was asleep. Katara sighed, "Figures." She mumbled, re-directing her attention back toward the horizon where the stars twinkled against the satin blue sky, but Katara wasn't thinking about the scenery, she was thinking about what she would do once she met the man face-to-face. How she would tell him what he had done and who she was, how she would make him suffer before actually putting him through any physical pain. Katara sighed, and gripped the reigns harder, she couldn't afford to lose focus now, she had to concentrate on the task ahead and that was finding the man first.

A yawn escaped her, and as she yawned she heard Zuko speak in his sleep, "I'm sorry…" he mumbled, "Katara." Her name made her jolt and turn around to look at him; he was definitely asleep, so that meant he was having a dream about her. Katara released the reigns, tying them off on Appa's horns and climbed into the saddle, she crawled toward Zuko and sat down in front of him.

At first, Katara wasn't sure what she was doing, or why she had decided to move back here, but then, slowly, hesitantly, she reached out a hand to him, and brushed back the long bangs that hung over his face, shadowing his sharp features. Katara blinked in surprise, so she really did like his hair, she had thought maybe she had just been tired the other time she'd felt it, just as soft and silky as she remembered, she could probably play with it all day if she had that option, but she didn't.

Katara yanked her hand away, "Don't be stupid! You have to pay attention!" she scolded herself, but found she couldn't move from her spot next to Zuko. Katara stared down at him, her thoughts spiraling and swirling, he was beautiful there was no doubt about it. But why was she thinking about that at such a time? She had to think about her Mother's killer, she found it was much easier to think about Zuko instead. Katara sighed, this was getting ridiculous, _'I might as well sit here until I can move and think properly again…'_ she thought, disappointed in her determination.

As Katara stared at Zuko, she began to feel something tickling inside her stomach, butterflies. She had had these before when she liked guys, but…not like this, not an unfamiliar feeling; the feeling was like a thousand lunar moths flying around inside of her, waiting to be released. But what the heck did it mean? Why did she feel this way about Zuko, now she really wished her Mother were here, she would be able to explain exactly what she was feeling, if it was just nervousness because of the mission, or if she really, truly, genuinely had a crush on the fire prince, or ex-fire-prince.

Katara shook her head quickly, and moved away from Zuko, back to her position on Appa's head, she took the reigns, "Appa…" she said slowly, "what do you think? Do you think I like Zuko?"

Appa made a small rumbling sound, it sounded like he was agreeing with her, "really…" she muttered, denial was the best option. Whether she liked Zuko or not was of little importance at the moment, she had to remember exactly where they were going, she had been through so many mishaps in the past year, she didn't want to have one today, especially since today was very important to her, so, no more thoughts about Zuko, only thoughts about how to get the murderer.

Zuko woke up, and to his surprise, it was dawn, he didn't realize he was that tired, maybe it was a good thing he'd gotten sleep, but what about Katara? She hadn't moved since last night. Zuko sat up and looked at her back, "I can take over now if you want," he offered.

"No, I'm fine." Katara insisted coldly. Zuko sighed, "how far are we from the location?" he asked, deciding it was best to change the subject.

"Not far, we are almost there…"

Zuko nodded and crossed his legs Indian style, "Katara…" he said lightly, he was sure she hadn't heard him, but when she turned her head to look at him over her shoulder, he knew she had. "What?" she asked.

"Uh…Nothing, sorry," Zuko rubbed the back of his head, feeling like an idiot for ever opening his mouth. And then, out of no where, or that's what it seemed like, popped out the little island, shining on the horizon. Katara's eyes narrowed in on it, "There it is." She murmured. Zuko nodded, they were here, they both slipped off of Appa, Katara ordered the bison to stay, sneaking off deeper into the island, Katara followed closely behind Zuko, he knew the island and she didn't, so it only made sense that she would trust him.

They both peered over a boulder when they spotted the man, and then they both ducked when he turned around. Being stealthy was a lot easier than Katara could've imagined, she liked being sneaky.

A bolt of fire went flying at the bush, but Zuko had moved out of it moments before that, as if he had known that would happen. "Come out of those bushes, I know you are in there." The man growled.

"Alright, but we weren't in the bushes," Zuko said, stepping out in front of the man with Katara at his side, the man spun around, "what do you want?" he barked, obviously trying to hide the fact that he was intimidated.

"Do you know who I am?" Katara asked, pulling the black mask down, the man hesitated before answering, "uh…no." he replied, believing himself to be honest.

"Look closer!" Katara snarled, stepping toward him, suddenly the man's eyes grew wide, "oh…yes, yes, now I remember…you are that little water tribe girl…but what are you doing here?"

"I came to avenge my mother," her voice went down into a dangerous pitch, Zuko knew that she was serious about all of this, and it made him wonder, if she truly intended to kill the man, who seemed to be quaking in his boots. "But, your mother said she was the water bender…" the man said, sounding confused by all of this.

"She lied! She lied to protect me…" Katara's hands shot up, "I am the water bender!" she shouted. The rain had been pouring down heavily, up until now, it had suddenly stopped around them, and when Zuko looked up, he noticed why. Katara was bending the rain into a huge dome above them. All the water began to turn into ice, and then thick and pointed shards of ice went flying at the man, and for several minutes, Zuko was sure she had killed him, but when he looked closer, that wasn't the case. But the man did look scared out of his mind.

"Even as much as I hate you for what you did…" Katara closed her eyes, struggled to come to terms with what she was actually doing, "I just can't." she opened her eyes to look at the man; he stared at her in fear and awe, "Please! Please! I begging you spare my life!" he said, falling forward onto his hands and knees, in bowing position, it was a position Zuko was familiar with, he had seen many a servant in the palace show that pose, it was commonly called a frog position. And it lowered that person in respect or fear.

Katara shook her head, "your pathetic, and not worth my energy to kill." She turned away from him, "besides…it's what mother would have wanted." She mumbled, now that she had found him and couldn't kill him, she felt empty and she realized something for the very first time, she had not forgiven Zuko yet. That was something she would have to do once they got home, it wouldn't be right to keep him thinking that she hated him. Not blinded by her rage anymore, Katara glanced at Zuko, and saw him in a different light, there was an unexplainable feeling she got when she looked at him, something bigger than her or anyone else around them. She sighed and together they walked away, leaving a cowering man.

Zuko glanced at her from the corner of his eye, and he didn't speak until they reached Appa, "that was…brave." He said climbing up onto Appa's back.

"What was? Attacking an old man?" Katara asked, hopping up onto Appa's head. "No…" Zuko said, he turned his face away from her when she looked at him with a questioning look. "I meant you were brave to let him go, it's hard to do that." Zuko shrugged, his face was burning red, he wasn't sure why he was blushing, but he was, and for a moment he thought Katara might not respond, but then she sighed.

"Thanks Zuko, but…I don't feel brave." She whispered, Zuko's head turned and he looked at her back, her head hung and she whispered the command for Appa, "yip-yip." Zuko had seen Katara sad, he had seen her cry, but this, uncrying yet in pain Katara made him want to reach out to her and hug her close, he wanted to tell her it was O.K, he wanted to comfort her. But Zuko didn't know just how well that would go over.

"Katara…I'm sorry." He murmured, he didn't expect a reply from her, but she turned around to face him, "its okay, I'm glad I got to do this Zuko, otherwise…who knows what I would have done in the future, when things were more dire."

Zuko nodded, "Yeah, always best to get these kinds of things out of the way early." He forced a smile, it was small, but still he hoped it would help, Katara nodded, and turned back around, obviously wanting time to think. So Zuko left her alone the whole ride home, and even after they got off Appa, they didn't speak. Katara was rushed by Sokka, "Are you okay?" he asked worried.

"I'm fine…look, I just need some time alone, k?" Katara mumbled, not looking up at Sokka, as she walked around him, and away from the camp. Sokka watched her go, and then turned on Zuko, "What happened?" he asked arching a brow.

Zuko sighed, "Well, we found the man…"

"And…?" Sokka asked, annoyed that Zuko hadn't finished. "What happened?!" he asked again, more desperately this time. Zuko closed his eyes, "she didn't kill him…"

Sokka released the breath he hadn't realized he had been holding. "That's good, I was afraid she would kill him…." Sokka patted Zuko's shoulder, "thanks." He mumbled, before walking away, needing his own space to think. Zuko glanced up and then went to Aang, "Aang…" he said slowly, not sure what else to say, or if he should apologize. Aang jolted up, "Oh! Zuko, you two are back, how did things go?" he asked, his eyes scanning the area for Katara, but she was no where and his eyes narrowed.

"We found him, but…Katara didn't kill him." Zuko explained, reducing the worry on Aang's face, "Good, where is she?"

"She went off, she said she wanted to be alone for a while," Zuko shrugged.

"Oh, okay, yeah you must be tired Zuko…" Aang said walking toward him, "I'll tend to Appa, you get some rest."

"Alright…Thanks Aang," Zuko said, before walking to his tent.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Katara stared down at the ocean, the water was shimmering with the last rays of sunlight, and the golden color that shown on the water, reminded her of Zuko's eyes. The brilliant gold eyes, that looked right at her, not through her or around her, but at who she really was, even though he had encouraged her to go look for that man, he had been right, she had needed closure. And she got it. Katara sighed and closed her eyes, letting her toes splash lightly against the water, she had been missing something inside of her for such a long time, that when she felt the area filling up, she didn't know what to think or do. _'Mom, are you proud of me? What…what do you think about Zuko?'_ Katara opened her eyes; she knew what she thought about Zuko. Zuko was someone who was there for her when no one else had been, who had helped her struggle with these emotions, and they could relate to each other.

Zuko also understood what not having a Mother was like, and Katara felt a sharp stab of guilt and pain for ever thinking Zuko had been lying about his Mother. _'Zuko…I owe you a lot. I just hope you can forgive me…'_

_**To be continued...**  
_


	9. Chapter 9

**"****I'd take the stars right out of the sky for you  
I'd end the world give you the sun, the moon  
For all of time, forever loving you"- Anything, The Calling**

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Katara's mind had been racing ever since she had come back from her mission with Zuko; it all seemed so unreal now that she thought about it. It was almost like it had never happened, but the truth of it was that it had and she had spent time with Zuko, though it hadn't been the best way to spend time with him, it had still opened her eyes to Zuko's true nature, that he actually did care about her, and that thought was really nagging at her. The thoughts of Zuko being next to her, he had been so close to her, she could feel his body heat, and yet she had never registered it.

She lifted her head, to look over the waters, even though she heard Aang and Zuko coming down the dock, she didn't bother to look at them, Aang probably wanted to see how she was doing, and who knew what Zuko wanted, if anything.

"Katara!"

The voice broke Katara from her thoughts and she looked up toward the sun from where she sat at the dock, not needing to see them to know that Aang and Zuko were coming toward her.

"Are you okay?" Aang asked stopping a little ways before actually being right next to her. He sounded concerned.

"I'm doing fine." She responded rather coldly, she wasn't really in the mood for talking.

"Zuko told me what you did... or what you didn't do, I guess." Aang rubbed the back of his head and then smiled, "I'm proud of you."

Katara didn't feel like anyone should be proud of her, the feelings inside her still turned and they worsened as Aang spoke. She glanced at Aang, or in the direction Aang was in and spoke; "I wanted to do it." her eyes narrowed as she spoke, "I wanted to take out all my anger on him... but..." she looked back down at the water, "I couldn't. I don't know if it's because I'm too weak to do it, or if it's because I'm strong enough not too." she closed her eyes, letting her words sink in.

"You did the right thing, " Aang started, "forgiveness is the first step you have to take to begin healing." as he spoke, Katara began to stand up from where she sat, she walked up next to Aang, but didn't look at him. "I didn't forgive him," she said coldly again, she closed her eyes; "I'll never forgive him." she felt a small part of rage awaken again. When she opened her eyes, and looked at him, the man who had awoken a small strange feeling inside her, she felt the rage melt away and a strange expression slid onto her face.

"But I am ready to forgive you." she said as she made her way to Zuko, then stopped in front of him, before taking a quick step and throwing her arms around his neck. She felt his hands rest on her back, and for that moment, she felt warm... at peace. She felt... full. Like there was nothing else in the world that could fill her, she felt in him something that she had never felt when she hugged Aang, she felt complete. It was new, but she liked it, and though the moment was short, she wished she could be there for an eternity. Katara pulled away and left her left hand on his shoulder and her right hand on his arm, she smiled at him, before going around him… she wasn't sure of it, but she thought she felt him staring at her back as she walked away, those golden eyes of fire watching her.

Katara felt a shiver squirm down her back as she walked away, she went to her tent and she sat down inside of it and crossed her arms. She felt that a great deal of trouble for her emotionally was going to come flinging itself at her, and she was fairly certain she knew from where, even though she knew this, she still couldn't help reliving the emotion she had felt when she had hugged Zuko, she smiled slightly, it was definitely something she wanted to do again, but when or where was unknown.

The evening was fading, and so were the thoughts of dinner, so instead of leaving her tent to cook for the gang, Katara fluffed her pillow and lied down, tucking an arm under the fluffy pillow, she closed her eyes slowly and slipped into a dream about Zuko, the details were fuzzy, but she dreamed she was dancing with him in a fancy room, not one she remembered ever seeing, and he was spinning her around, before pulling her back into his arms, their foreheads touched tenderly, and she closed her eyes, drinking in his scent. Suddenly she rested her head on his shoulder, as they danced gracefully across the golden and red floor out-doing every other couple on the marble floor.

She pulled her head back and looked up at Zuko, and then they leaned into each other, and their lips met in a soft feathery kiss.

"Gah!" Katara shot up out of the sleeping bag, her heart pounding ferociously, threatening to jump out of her body completely, _'What, what was that?'_ one of Katara's hands lifted and touched her chest where her heart was throbbing. _'I kissed…Zuko.'_ Katara closed her eyes, feeling that sensation again, even though it had only been a dream. _'Woah! Hold up Katara, you've gotta get some fresh air! It was just a dream.'_ Katara threw her blankets off and pushed out of her tent, slamming into someone, and together they went down, hitting the ground hard.

"Oh my gosh! Are you okay?" Katara said opening her eyes, "I'm sorry…Zuko!" she said startled, "Ouch…" Zuko muttered, opening an eye.

"Why are you covered in soup?" Katara asked arching a brow.

"Well, I was bringing you dinner…" Zuko shrugged, "now please get off me." He mumbled. Katara looked down, "Ack!" she pushed off the ground and stood up straight, "I'm really sorry Zuko," she held out a hand, and helped him to his feet.

"That's okay…" Zuko said, trying to brush off the hot liquid and food

"Here, let me see it." Katara touched his shirt and bent the soup off his clothes, along with the food. "Come on, let's go to the river and see if I can't heal up those burns." Katara closed her eyes as she walked away, she was such an idiot, of course she hadn't known he was out there, Katara glanced over her shoulder, Zuko was following her, looking a little nervous.

Katara sighed as the sound of the rushing river penetrated their senses; they followed it to a less wild part of the river, where they sat on the bank of the river.

"Let's see your skin," Katara said, pulling at his shirt so she could see the red marks on his chest. Zuko nodded and slowly lifted his shirt, wincing as he did so, "ouch…" he grumbled. Katara's sharp intake of breath made him look down at his skin, "Yeah, that's what happens with hot things." Zuko said looking up at Katara.

"I know," Katara sighed and pulled water from the river and placed her hands on the biggest burn, as she sat there healing him she was silent, and so was he.

"I'm sorry Zuko; I…should've looked before busting out of my tent like that." Katara said, breaking the awkward silence.

"Could have happened to anyone, I'm just lucky we have a water bender with us," he smiled down at her, and Katara looked up a bit surprised by what he said, her cheeks turning pink.

"Uh, yeah, good thing huh?" Katara diverted her eyes to the burn.

Zuko chuckled, "yeah."

"So….why were you bringing me soup?" Katara asked casually, knowing the answer to that question. "I was going to feed it to the beaver that lives next to your tent." Katara's eyes widened and she looked up at Zuko, "what?" she was surprised; he had just cracked a joke. "You….you made a joke." Katara said, not able to hide the surprise in her voice.

"Yeah, is that so uncommon?" Zuko asked arching a fine brow, "Well, no, but for you yes!" Katara grinned, and Zuko smiled, "better get used to it; now I am hanging out with people who joke a lot…you know they are actually pretty crazy."

"Oh yeah, then why are you with them?" Katara responded, playing along with him, her ocean blue eyes staring into his golden eyes of fire. "Well, they are really great people, and accept me, I don't want it any other way…plus there's this really nice girl in the group, I think she and I may become good friends."

"Oh, what's she like?" Katara smirked, at him, and Zuko shrugged, "well she's tall, slender and really pretty, she keeps her hair down, most of the time." He said nodding his head to the side as if that were something important to remember.

"Yeah? She like you or something?"

"I don't know, I'm pretty sure she has a boyfriend, he's in the group too." Zuko tried not to smile, but Katara's eyes widened, "What? She has a boyfriend? Who?"

"His names Sokka, he's an idiot sometimes, but really nice and helpful…" Katara smacked Zuko's arm when he started to chuckle, but she started to laugh too, it was funny, albeit a little disappointing, she had been somewhat hopeful that he was talking about her, but he had been joking around with her. Katara sighed as she finished the last burn.

"There, done." She smiled at her accomplishment, and looked up at Zuko, "Thank you." He replied, "Not a problem Zuko." Katara stood up and Zuko picked up his shirt, "hey…could you?"

"No prob," Katara splashed the shirt and then yanked the water out of it, sucking any residue of the soup out of it. "Thanks," Zuko stood up and dawned the shirt, and together they walked back to the camp, Katara couldn't keep the smile off her face, she had completely forgotten her dream and was just enjoying time with Zuko, she was glad she could now get along without getting mad at him. She couldn't believe how terrible she had been to him, she felt like she owed him a thousand and one apology's, but for now, she would just enjoy being with him.

"So Suki huh?" Katara grinned playfully, and Zuko rolled his eyes, "I was joking." He complained, "Were you really? Poor Suki, she'll be sad to hear that you don't want to be her friend." Katara laughed when Zuko groaned, "stop it." He said, pushing her gently. "Okay, I will." Katara glanced up at him, it was nice to joke with him, honestly she had been getting tired of being angry with him all the time it had seriously been wearing her out.

"Where did you two go?" Aang asked when they got back.

Katara glanced up at Zuko and Zuko glanced at her, "we were at the river," Katara explained with a smile, "yeah, she spilled boiling hot soup on me." Or that's what they would've said, but instead they both smiled at Aang, and in unison replied. "Nothing."

Aang's thin eyebrow shot up, "oh well, I'm just happy to see you two getting along." He smiled widely, and Katara patted his shoulder, "don't worry from now on, Zuko and I are just fine."

"Good to hear!" Aang said cheerfully, "it was getting a little tense there for a while, for everyone."

"I bet." Katara chuckled and walked away from the boys, once out of sight she rushed down to the waters edge, sucking in the fresh air, the scent of Zuko had been filling her senses, it was just like it had been in her dream, soft and rich. Katara sat down on the small beach. They were moving locations again tomorrow, so this was the last chance to sit here and enjoy the night sky. Katara closed her eyes, and listened to the water lap against the sand, it was a soothing sound and she felt her eye lids grow heavy from exhaustion, she needed to sleep, but didn't want to leave this spot, so instead of going to her tent, she simply curled up in a ball and eventually fell asleep.

The shouts in the early morning air woke Katara up, she felt stiff from sleeping on the beach all night, she stretched and then sat up, rubbing her eye, "What's going on?" she mumbled, standing up and stumbling back to the camp, everyone was running around shouting.

"Did you see her over there?!" Aang shouted.

"No! I can't find her! She's not in her tent!" Toph hissed then her eyes opened wider. "Uh, guys…"

"Not now Toph! We have to find her!" Sokka said running past the young girl who sighed and rolled her eyes, Zuko suddenly stopped in his rampage of searching the camp when he saw Katara standing off to the side watching them curiously. Zuko sighed and walked over to her, "There you are, everyone's been worried about you." He said hands on his hips like an angry mother.

"I'm sorry…" Katara's eyebrow shot up as she watched Sokka rush by for the tenth time that morning, "what's going on?"

"Well, they are still lookin' for you." Zuko explained, "Wow…they look really ridiculous don't they?"

"Mm-hmm," Katara's reply made Zuko smirk a little, it was extremely amusing to stand this far away and watch, Sokka, Suki and Aang run around like ants that had just dropped food and couldn't find it again. Toph joined them and chuckled, "I wonder if they know how dumb they look." She commented with a smirk, "I somehow doubt it," Zuko muttered.

"Hey, um guys!" Katara said raising her hand, trying to get their attention, "Not now Katara! We are trying to find you!" Sokka shouted then turned away from her. "Wait…Katara!" Sokka spun around and ran toward her, hugging her close, "where were you?!" he asked. Katara sighed, "I was on the beach…"

Aang and Suki both sighed with relief, "you really shouldn't go places without telling anyone!" Suki said, stepping toward them, her arms crossing.

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize everyone was going to freak out and act like idiots."

"Concerned idiots!" Toph corrected, "Yes, concerned idiots, whatever helps you sleep at night." Katara glanced at Toph who waved a hand at her, dismissing Katara's comment.

"Right, now that we've found Katara, we can get moving! Come on guys, pack up your stuff and get it on Appa!" Sokka ordered as he walked away from the small group, and grabbing his sleeping bag off the ground where Zuko had thrown it, everyone dispersed to their tents to collected belongings. Zuko though grabbed Katara's arm as she was walking away, "Katara, I'm glad you're safe." He released her arm and went around her.

"Huh…" Katara watched him go, "what was that…" she muttered.

The journey to Ember Island was slow, but everyone got sleep, or played games, the ones they could come up with fifty feet in the air. But mostly everyone was bored and hung over the edge, watching the water as it went by beneath them. "Man, it's so boring in the air!" Toph said over the rushing wind. "No kidding, I hate flying on Appa," Zuko said crossing his arms stubbornly.

"Yeah, you guys should've heard him on the way to the temple, he was complaining the whole way!" Aang said grinning, the others laughed and Zuko rolled his eyes.

Katara smiled, this journey had been good for all of them, and even though a bigger danger loomed ahead of them, she had confidence in the fact that they were going to do it. The wind whipped past her ear, and she turned her head into the wind, letting it rip through her hair and tug it here and there. Katara closed her eyes and took a deep breath, enjoying the taste of adventure again, soon they would land on Ember Island, Katara glanced at Zuko and then started, he was sitting right next to her, for some reason she hadn't noticed that until now. It wasn't like it was a problem, but, it really made her nervous, she shivered gently.

Zuko glanced at her, "are you okay?" he asked, his shoulder was leaning against hers, so of course he had felt her shiver. "Oh yeah, I'm fine, just…a little cold from the wind." Katara shrugged and smiled, "not a big deal." It was a lie of course, she couldn't tell him the truth, that him sitting next to her made her shiver, and not in a bad way either.

"Oh," Zuko leaned forward and opened his bag, pulling out a red jacket that Zuko kept with him just in case, he turned and looked at Katara, holding it out to her. "Here."

"What's this?" she asked, pointing at it.

"It's my jacket, it'll keep you warm." Zuko promised, as he placed it in her lap.

"Oh, wow, thanks Zuko." Katara smiled and opened up the folded jacket, admiring it for a moment before slipping it on, the material was wonderful to the touch. Katara felt a huge grin slide onto her face, and she felt the need to giggle, though she wasn't sure why. A tiny giggle escaped her without her permission and she winced when Zuko glanced at her, his eyebrow going up. She waved a hand, "sorry, that was nothing." She shrugged. Zuko's eyebrows only shot up more and then he shrugged as a tiny smile twisted onto his face, before he turned his head so she couldn't see his face. _'I wonder if he's laughing at me…'_ she thought, one of her own eyebrows going up, _'Meanie…'_ Katara chuckled and shook her head. It was strange that she suddenly cared what Zuko thought of her, and it was strange that she would even accept a gift from him, when he had offered her his jacket a swirl of emotions had jolted into her stomach, so she had hardly been able to take it. Of course she hid that so it wouldn't show on her face or in her body language.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Soon they arrived on Ember Island, and Katara was in awe at how beautiful the house that they were staying in was. "Wow, this place is amazing!" Suki spoke what Katara was thinking, and Katara nodded in agreement, utterly speechless. "Wow Zuko, this place is pretty cool, are you sure no one will find us here?" Sokka asked.

"Don't worry, my dad stopped coming here, so don't worry," he said, his tone as dull as ever. Katara glanced at him, _'it must be hard for him to talk about this place, it's obvious he has many memories of this place.'_ Katara waited until everyone else was out of earshot before touching Zuko's arm, he was lifting one of their bags. "Zuko…" she said slowly, not sure what to say, _'What…what am I going to say?'_

Zuko looked up at her, inquiringly. _'Great! Think of what to say! Quick.'_

"Uh, I hope you like duck!" Katara blurted without thinking, she winced looking away from him, _'darn it! What was that?! I'm such an idiot!'_

Zuko stared at her for a moment and then blinked, "uh, yeah, I like…duck." He shouldered his bag, "why?" he asked. _'Crap!'_

"Well, that's what we are having for dinner!" Katara said grinning awkwardly.

"Really? Sounds good, cooked over the spit or boiled?" Zuko asked, it was an innocent question, but Katara wanted to kick herself for ever trying to comfort him, she was just too jittery around him right now.

"I…haven't decided yet…" Katara mumbled, as she started to walk away from him, wishing she had never opened her mouth.

"Another thing, where are you going to get a duck?" Zuko said, falling into step next to her, _'Shoot! I didn't think of that,'_ Katara didn't answer him, instead she pretended to be distracted, as soon as she stepped foot inside the house she didn't need to pretend, the place was even more amazing from the inside. "Wow…" she breathed, "I can't believe…that you ever stopped coming here." She whispered, staring up at the ceiling.

"Yeah well, my father isn't a very nostalgic person." Zuko said looking down, his tone slipping into a mix between anger and depression. Katara looked at him suddenly, and stared at his face, his eyes showed his pain, and Katara opened her mouth to speak to him, she wanted to comfort him (again) but…

"Katara!" Aang's voice startled her and she closed her eyes in frustration, "come here!" he called. "I'll be there in a minute Aang," Katara shouted back, trying to hide her annoyance. Zuko was looking at her now, "go ahead, I'll just, put my stuff away." He turned and walked away from her. Katara stretched out a hand to stop him, she sighed and let her hand fall back to her side just as Aang ran up to her, and grabbed her arm.

"Come on! You've gotta see this!" Aang grinned from ear to ear, but when he noticed Katara wasn't grinning he frowned, "Katara, what's wrong?" he asked, looking at her seriously. Katara looked at Aang and smiled weakly, "it's nothing Aang, what was it that you wanted to show me?" she said, changing the subject, Aang instantly smiled, "Oh, right! Come on!" he tugged her down the opposite hall, but Katara looked over her shoulder and spotted Zuko going into a room, she sighed and tried to pay attention to Aang. But it was hard to pay attention to him gabbing the way he was, she wasn't even sure what he was talking about, half the stuff he said went right over her head. Katara sighed; some of the things she saw that she thought were gorgeous Aang didn't care about. She was definitely coming back to see those things when Aang wasn't yanking her around like a child would to their mother.

Katara sat down on a stone bench, she had finally gotten Aang to un-attach himself from her, and she had a small amount of time to herself, she wasn't sure how long it would last, so after a short break she shot up and re-traced her steps to the places Aang hadn't let her look at things. She took her time, looking at all the details and admiring things here and there, everything was stunning.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Katara sighed, it had been seven days since their arrival on Ember Island, and she hadn't been able to do a single thing except cook, clean and train a little. Everything else was boring, Katara stood up and left her room, she strolled down the halls, and saw Zuko sitting by the fountain; he didn't have his shirt on, so Katara assumed he had just finished training. For some reason she felt her cheeks flush from embarrassment, "hey, what'cha doin'?" she asked as casually as she could, walking up to him, Zuko looked up at her, "oh, I just finished cooling down, so I'm just taking a small break, what's up?" he asked.

"Nothing, I'm just bored." Katara sat down next to him and shrugged, "Yeah, I know what you mean." Zuko rubbed his hair, sending water splatters everywhere he had obviously dunked his head in water or something.

"Hey!" Sokka said suddenly appearing, "where is everyone?"

"Uh, here and there?" Katara said, "what's going on?"

"I have a surprise for everyone!" Sokka grinned widely, "but I need everyone gathered together before I can tell anyone what it is."

Katara winced, when her brother said those kinds of things, it really made her wonder what he was thinking, the surprises were normally never a good thing. "I'm going to get the others, you two stay here." Sokka said before rushing off.

"Where else would we go?" Katara said glancing at Zuko, who shrugged, "sometimes I wonder about Sokka…" Zuko said, watching her brother leave, "yeah, he's a bit nutty, but still a good brother." Katara smiled fondly, and Zuko arched a brow, "Hey Katara…about you and Aang…"

Katara stared at him, her heart pounding as he spoke, but before he could finish Sokka returned, "BACK!" he shouted, the others on his heels. Katara glowered at Sokka, "what's wrong with you?!" she shouted, jumping to her feet and pointing a finger at him, Sokka's eyes widened, "huh? What did I do? I was just gathering everyone together…"

"Never mind." Katara huffed, before crossing her arms.

"Why did you want us Sokka?" Suki asked, noticing Zuko and taking a wild guess as to why Katara was mad. "Oh right!" Sokka grinned; "look at this!" he whipped out a poster for them all to see, "what's that?" Toph asked.

"It's a play! The Ember Island players are doing it!" Sokka grinned enthusiastically. _'How could I have ever guessed…something silly.'_ Katara thought.


	10. Attention:

Hello my wonderful watchers,

I'm sorry I've abandoned this story. My life went crazy before I could finish it and it appears the story was swept away with my life as well. I don't have the heart to finish it right now, maybe if I have some inspiration again someday. I hate to leave it abandoned in the pile with the rest, but what else can I do? Looking at it makes me sad. However, I hope to write other fanfictions you will enjoy and as I said before, if I ever map this one out again I'll update it. Thank you for being so wonderful throughout the years! I thought you deserved to know.

Yours truly,

-crazejen


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